The University of Calgary is set to host a national energy modelling initiative that aims to advance evidence-based decision making in Canadian energy.
Funded by a $5-million grant from Natural Resources Canada, the Energy Modelling Hub (EMH)'s goal is to bring together the entire Canadian energy modelling community and build Canada's capacity to do better open-sourced energy modelling.
"Right now, despite Canada's energy prominence, access to data and good models is quite poor relative to places like the United States," explains Blake Shaffer, PhD'18, an associate professor in the Faculty of Arts' Department of Economics and the director of the Energy Modelling Hub.
Shaffer says the United States has the Energy Information Administration, a government entity which does a good job of sharing key data and creating open-source models that anyone can use to ask pressing energy questions.
"The EMH is about strengthening and building Canada's energy modelling community," says Shaffer. "The word 'hub' is integral, as we aren't the core producers of the models, but we are the connectors."
The EMH was originally launched as the Energy Modelling Initiative in 2022, housed at the Institut de l'énergie Trottier at Polytechnique Montréal, and partnering with UCalgary and the Institute for Integrated Energy Systems at the University of Victoria. Calgary will now take over hosting duties for the next four years, with both York and Carleton also coming on board as partner institutions.
Blake Shaffer. Photo Courtesy Blake Shaffer
Informing policy decisions and business choices
Energy modelling provides policy makers with the data to make the best energy decisions for Canadians. For example, as discussions around interprovincial electricity connections pick up, modellers can forecast what that may mean for British Columbia's economy and Alberta's consumers should the two provinces strengthen their transmission connection.
"Models can help policy makers better understand the implications of different policy choices," explains Shaffer. "They can also help industry build a business case and help identify winners and losers of any policy."
While the EMH is open access, Shaffer says it is currently geared toward the modelling crowd, but they are working towards making it more public facing down the road.
Critical to future of energy in Canada
As energy transition and geopolitical changes occur, Shaffer says the EMH is about giving Canadians in government, industry and the general public, the tools to plan for and build an energy future that is reliable, affordable and sustainable.
"It's about being able to understand better, and then plan better as a result," he says.
Each of the partner institutions plays a unique role. UVic is developing the open-source modelling and contributing to it. Polytechnique Montréal is working on a database of energy data. UCalgary's primary role is in convening central groups in workshops, like the Electricity Camp, to get into the weeds on the changes going on in energy systems.
For Shaffer, hosting the EMH at UCalgary is further proof of the university's prodigiousness in energy research.
"UCalgary prides itself in being a leader in energy," says Shaffer. "This is really validation of our important role; that we are heading this national energy modelling hub of hundreds of participants from around the country."
