The overarching goal of SECURES is to provide targeted support to Austrian policy makers by taking a closer look at the challenges and opportunities arising for Austria’s electricity system in future years, acting as a safeguard for securing a reliable, sustainable and cost-efficient electricity supply in times of climate change.

The call for proposals encourages research proposals that directly respond to the needs of Austrian policy makers in their efforts to design and implement adaptation (and mitigation) measures, and that climate change might provoke conflicts of objectives and of interests. SECURES serves as a response to these policy needs and will facilitate to solve conflicts in targets. We will provide proactive policy support thanks to our tailored in-depth model-based analysis complemented by an open and transparent stakeholder dialogue. With this we will enable Austrian policy makers and stakeholders to overcome and solve conflicts in policy targets for security of energy supply, the need for decarbonisation and the consequences for the Austrian economy, all increasingly affected by impacts arising from climate change.

This leads up to the three key objectives of SECURES:

·       Conducting an in-depth analysis of changing patterns in weather, electricity demand and supply driven by climate change and decarbonization;

·       Provide model-based decision support for securing a reliable, sustainable and cost-efficient transition of Austria’s electricity sector in times of climate change;

·       Ensure a proper research orientation and a high impact through a continuous and in-depth stakeholder involvement and dialogue.

Within SECURES we will transparently analyse how the energy transition towards decarbonisation and climate adaptation may look like, identify critical aspects for supply security in Austria’s electricity system and provide options on the way forward to secure a reliable, sustainable and cost-efficient electricity supply in Austria in the future. In the analysis we put a focus in our modelling on the electricity sector since, apart from today, it is expected to be even more in the future in the centre of energy supply, thanks to increasing electrification of the transport sector and increased sector coupling with heating and cooling, including process heat required by the industry sector.