UCLouvain Fundings
Fondation Louvain
Financement: Electrabel, Belgium
Researcher:Céline Gérard/
Date: September 2017-September 2020
Although a substantial amount of demand response resides in the residential sector, the mobilization of residential demand response has fallen short of expectations. The participation of residential flexibility in wholesale electricity markets can have a disruptive impact on the industry. Inspired by our collaboration with MIT start-up ZOME, we analyze the long-run impact of residential demand response on the profitability of various technologies through long-run equilibrium models of electricity markets.
Financement: Kronos Group, Belgium
Researcher:/
Date: September 2017-September 2020
The Kronos Group Chair "Stratetic Sourcing and Procurement" is the fruit of a collaboration between Kronos Group and Louvain School of Management of the UCLouvain. The objective of the Chair is to promote research and education in the sourcing and procurement domain, contributing to fostering the profession to continue its transformation into a value creating and strategic profession. The Chair is unique for Belgium and also launching a unique Master's level specialization in sourcing and procurement in Belgium, integrated in Louvain School of Management. The research in the Chair aims at empirical, economic and strategic studies of procurement under transformation, in particular the innovative, ethical and environmental dimensions of the area.
Coordinator: Anthony Papavasiliou
Financement: Electrabel
Researcher: /
Date: February 2016-October 2020
The large-scale integration of renewable energy sources is creating increasing needs for flexibility. The optimal dispatch of conventional resources of a sub-hourly time scale in order to prevent binding ramping constraints is increasing the challenges of short-term operations. This project aims at developing optimization models and algorithms that can support the optimal utilization of generator flexibility in short-term operations.
Coordinator: Anthony Papavasiliou
Financement: Fonds de Recherche Pierre et Colette Bauchau
Researcher: Daniel Avila
Date: April 2018-December 2020
Africa has recently set ambitious renewable energy integration targets, best exemplified through the adoption of the African Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI) as well as by the large number of renewable infrastructure projects that are underway. The goals of this project are:
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To develop tools for optimizing the use of electricity in existing electric power systems, in particular optimally managing utility-scale storage in a system dominated by solar production;
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To develop tools for planning for future renewable systems, in particular randomized algorithms for obtaining optimal transmission expansion plans subject to net load and component outage uncertainty with probabilistic guarantees of optimality;
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Operating future distributed energy systems which rely less on centralized fossil fuel resources and more on decentralized renewable resources.
Move-in Louvain
Researcher:Leonardo Madio (CORE)
Date: August 2018-March 2020
This research project aims to investigate how the growing availability of instruments to i) block the invasiveness of ads and profiling, and ii) to protect individual privacy might or might not lead to unintended effects for the different economic agents
International Fundings
European Commission Projects
Researchers: Chenghong Luo, Mariam Nanumyam and Akyal Taalaibekova
Financement: European Commission
Date: January 2017-December 2020
The Innovative Training Network ExSide combines an interdisciplinary research agenda with an innovative European joint doctoral training program, which provides doctoral fellows with a broad range of expertise and skills needed for a thorough analysis of expectation formation processes and their role in economics. Both the research projects and the training activities combine work in behavioral economics, psychoanalysis, opinion formation, network theory, agent-based simulation and economic modelling in different areas. The academic training will be complemented by extensive transferable skills training memasures, intersectoral training measures, provided by non-academic partners, ad career development training. Interaction with stakeholders, policy makers and the general public will play an important role in pursuing the ExSIDE agenda and disseminating the results. The ExSIDE consortium consists of eight leading European Universities and nine non-academic partners..
Belgian Fundings
BELSPO
Coordinators: Johan Eyckmans (KU Leuven), Sandra Rousseau (KU Leuven), Paul Belleflamme (CORE) and Thierry Bréchet (CORE)
Researcher: : Huan Ha
Financement: BELSPO
Date: December 2014-September 2019
The IECOMAT project develops complementary numerical and analytical tools designed to study a particular aspect of sustainable material management, the circular economy. The models to be employed and to be developed range from input-output models over partial, computable and general equilibrium models as well as analytical industrial organisation models of economic incentives. The project will deliver dififerent modeling frameworks, scenario analysis, a wide variety of policy analyses and ultimately an assessment of potential of a more circular economy model for Belgium.
The IECOMAT project brings together a multidisciplinary team of experienced scientists from material and environmental engineering, environmental economics, industrial organisation and stakeholder consultation practice. This multidsciplinary team from a leading Flemisch research institute on sustainable material management (VITO) and two research universities (KU Leuven and UCLouvain) interact intensively. This leads to an interdisciplinary analysis of key scenarios for the Belgian economy. Some specific areas of expertise are subcontracted to national and international secialists in their domain. In all approaches, three fundamental perspectives are included: physical material flows, environmental effects and socio-economic impacts, and business incentives. Therefore, the IECOMAT project is about integrated assessment models for the transition towards a circular economy. In order to strenghthen a transdisciplinary dimension, the input of policy markers, practitioners and business stakeholders is actively sought.
Impact of Green/Blue Spaces on Specific Morbidity and Cause-specific Mortality in Belgium
Coordinators: Benoit Nemery (KU Leuven), Isabelle Thomas (CORE), Tim Nawrot (Universiteit Hasselt), Catherine Bouland (Université libre de Bruxelles), Patric Deboosere (Vrije Universiteit Brussels) and An Van Nieuwenhuyse (Institut de Santé Publique, Bruxelles).
Researcher: Sonia Trabelsi
Financement: BELSPO (BRAIN)
Date: July 2015-December 2019
Living in green/blue areas is associated with better health. This may be due to low air and/or noise pollution, opportunities for physical activity, facilitation of social contacts, and promotion of recoverty from fatigue and stress. Yet, socio-economic (SE) factors also explain inequalities in health and access to green/blue spaces. The GRESP-HEALTH project evaluates the associations between living in/close to a green/blue area on morbidity and mortability in Belgium. It assesses all-cause and cause-specific mortality, specific morbidities and perceived health, considering environmental pollutants and SE factors.
The project includes individuals registered in the Belgian censuses of 1991 and/or 2001. Three levels of observation are studies: individual, statistical sector (SS) and group of SS, following individual and ecological designs. Mortality information is based on the National Mortality Database (a linkage between cause-specific mortality (2004-2012) is derived from the IMA (Intermutualistisch Agentschap) database, which contains reimbursement data of prescriptions. For green/blue spaces, the surface, shape, accessibility and type are calculated for each SS. Residential area-specific exposure to air pollutants is obtained rom satellite images. Traffic noise databases are used whenever possible. We will consider SE factors such as material deprivation, education, and occupation. The analyses will be conducted separately in different age specific populations and types of area (urban, sub-urban rural). We will use multilevel models for clustered data within geographical areas. Interactions of green/blue spaces with air pollution and SE factors will be evaluated and stratified analyses in areas with similar SE and environmental characteristics will be performed. Morover, specifici population groups (gender, employment status) will be considered. the GRESP-HEALTH project will improve the scientific knowledge about the hiherto uncertain associations between living close to green/blue spaces and health.
FNRS: Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique
Aspirant
Coordinator: François Maniquet
Researcher: Erika Pini
Financement: FNRS
Date: October 2018-September 2020
In this research, we investigate whether inequality may be responsible for the changes in the political spectrum that have recently occured in many countries, exploring the link between economic inequality, political polarization and participation, as measured by voter turnout. Indeed, the substantial increase in economic inequality that has been registered in many countries during the past decades is not free of consequences in the political sphere. In fact, when economic conditions are harsher, economic policy becomes a salient issue in the political debate and voters' preferences change accordingly. If politicians do not respond by adapting their proposals to the preferences of voters, this can only result in lower electoral participation. However, economic circumstances also affect political competition. In particular, during periods of high economic inequality we observe higher political polarization, which may in turn have a positive effect on voters' participation.
A model of political competition and turnout is dieveloped that is able to explain the relationship between economic inequality and elecltoral participation, by taking into account the effect of inequality on political polarization. We complement the theoretical theory study with an empirical analysis of the effect of inequlaity on polarization and the resulting impact on participation, and, focusing on the uS, we try to separately identify the causal effects of inequality and of polarization on turnout. Finally, we extend the analysis of the triple relation inequality-polarization-turnout to contexts of multi-party competition, by developing a citizen-candidate model, where we endogenize turnout by introuding the mis-match cost as a potential source of abstention. There, we try to explain both the shift of exiting parties towaords more extreme positions, and the emergence of new parties, of which countries like Italy, Spain and Germany are a clear example.
FRIA Project
Coordinator: Anthony Papavasiliou (CORE)
Researcher: Gilles Bertrand (CORE)
Financement: FNRS
Date: October 2018-September 2020
The goal of this research is to evaluate the profitability of flexibility assets in the context of the large-scale integration of renewable energy on the electricity market. We characterize a flexible asset as an asset that can quickly adjust the quantity of its output. Some examples of flexible assets are combined cycle gas turbine and mumped hydro storage. This increased integration of renewable nergy results in two paradoxical impacts:
- On the one hand, the increase of renewable production implies that the market requires more flexibility close to real time.
- On the other hand, flexible units are currently being mothballed or retired in Europe due financial losses that are related to high marginal costs, despite the fact that these resources are offering valuable reserve services to the system.
Therefore, in order to ensure power system security, we need to increase the profit of flexible assets. We study this need for extra remuneraiton of flexible assets in two ways:
- We first analyze the market design problem. The idea of this line of research is to evaluate the imapct of a new remuneration strategy, referred to as scarcity pricing, on flexible generator profits.
- We additionally analyze a bidding strategy problem. Our main focus is on the continuous intraday market which is one of the short-term electricity markets that is becoming increasingly important but for which there still exists a limited amount of research. We believe that the CIM is important due to the fact that it allows valuable adjustments to renewable forecast errors, which are becoming increasingly significant in recent years due to the increasing integration of renewable sources.
PDR Projects
Coordinator: Isabelle Thomas
Research: Arnaud Adam
Financement: FNRS
Date: December 2018-November 2020
The increasing number of trucks on the roads generates number of debates about sustainability. Transport quantitative analysis often rely on spatially aggregated and/or non exhaustive data (samples). This project aims at using unconventional "big data" (generated by on-board mandatory GPS deviceis) for refining freight transport geographies in Belgium. Three questions are raised in this project. (1) Is it possible to characterize each truck trace with on of several indices and make an insightful typology of the spatial shapes of routes ? (2) Is it possible to easily shift from raw GPS data to an origin-destination (places) matrices useful for transport modelling ? (3) How fare are the spatial realities extracted from this origin destination transport modelling or from current knowledge of the Belgian economic geographpy and logisticis organization?
Improving the nowledge in this domain is important for two reasons. Scientifically, it is to understand the geographical complexity of logisticsi and to solve some methodological issues such as to measure (quantify) unambiguously the "traces" of the trucks. In terms of policy issues, t is important to better understand and evaluate the spatial consequences of the kilometric tax in a heterogeneous space (Belgium). It is the actual uniform kilometric taxation environmentally, economically and socially equitable? Could a taxation varying space and time be more efficient? Yet could this new taxation generate new counterproductive effects?
Mobilizing Flexible Demand in Electric Power Systems through Service Quality Differentiation
Coordinator: Anthony Papavasiliou
Researcher: Céline Gérard
Financement: FNRS
Date: October 2017 - September 2019
The recent large-scale integration of renewable energies in electric power systems has resulted in various challenges in power system operations, due to the unpredictable, highly variable and non-controllable fluctuation of these resources. This has resulted in a growing demand for the incorporation of lexibility in the Central Western European electricity system in order to balance renewabme supply. Although storage devices can act as a source of flexibility, their cost is prohibitive for offering a definite solution to this problem. However, the only part of the electrical power system that is currently optimized is the high-voltage sytem. Consequently, there is a large amount of unused flexible resources connected to the low voltage system, coming from flexible residential and commercial demand, which can be exploited efficiently in order to break the current barriers that are bounding the growth of renewable energy integration. The project proposes a color - tagging system that - enables consumers to set "traffic lights" on their residential plugs: (i) green color indicates cheap power that can be interrupted at all times; (ii) orange color, power that can be interrupted in emergency conditions, (iii) red color, power that cannot be interrupted. Inspired by existing research on the integration of the color-tagging system into wholesale electricity market (macro scale), the goal of this project is to focus on the application of this demand response scheme at individual households and to infer the level of flexibility that can be leveraged for a consumer without excessively impacting perceived quality of service (microscale).
Social Preferences and the Persistence of Poverty
Coordinator: François Maniquet
Researcher: /
Financement: FNRS
Date: October 2016 - September 2020
This project is aiming to theoretically and empirically explore how the social components of preferences such as identity, social norms and social categories, may help explain the persistence of poverty and social exclusion in rich societies.
Coordinator: Leonardo Iania
Researcher: /
Finance: FNRS
Date: October 2015 - September 2019
This project studies the relationship between uncertainty, macroeconomic fluctuations, financial markets and asset prices. In particular, we are interested at answering of questions such as: How does uncertainty influences macroeconomic variables such as aggregate level of prices or aggregate economic activity? Does the impacpt of uncertainty change in bad times? Is the relationship between macroeconomic and financial variables time dependent? What is the impact of uncertainty on asset prices? We answer these questions by building a macro-finance model. In this setting the dynamics of government bond prices, macroeconomic and finance variables are linked by no arbitrage conditions and uncertainty enters in the model in the form of parameter instability. We develop and apply Bayesian econometrics models to explore instability phenomena and to derive new measures of uncertainty. Bayesian econometrics is well known for its flexibility in modelling uncertainty. Even if the model is initially applied to the government market, it can be used to analyze the relationship between, uncertainty, macroeconomic dynamics and prices of other contracts such corporate bond, swaps or credit derivatives.
Improving our knowledge in this area is crucial for at least two reasons. From an academic perspective, it is interesting to more doeeply understand (1) how the relationship between macro-economic variables, financial variables and asset pricing in time of turbulence, and (2) how uncertainty can influence these variables. This is a new area of research that can improve our understanding of economic models. From an applied perspective, understanding how uncertainty influences macroeconomic conditions or asset prices or the government yield curve is crucial for policy makers, ho aim at improving general economic conditions and the efficiency of financial markets.