Overall project

The "EmPowerPlan" project is testing the use and adaptation of simulative tools and collaborative processes. Regional planning actors are to be supported - as participatively as possible - in order to address the challenges of releasing land for renewable energies at an early stage and in dialogue. In this way, it should be possible for decision-makers in public administrations to approve the production of renewable energies more quickly. This accelerates the development of energy infrastructure at regional level. 

This is made possible in particular by the use of the "Simulation Tool for Stakeholder Empowerment" (StEmp-Tool), which was developed by the Reiner Lemoine Institute (RLI). Using the electricity market models created by the Öko-Institut (ÖI), local expansion paths are to weigh the regional contribution of renewable energies against the overarching expansion goals of the energy transition at the state and federal level. Because trust, justice and fairness are important success factors in the expansion of renewable energies, in addition to local energy management issues, the use of the tool in the planning process is being tested in a participatory manner and accompanied by social science from the IZT with the cooperation of the Öko-Institut and examined with regard to its effects. Relevant findings for successful cooperation between the actors are to be incorporated into a participation concept. The focus of the IZT is on the interests of the planning actors and the applicability of the tool, while the Öko-Institut (ÖI) looks at other interests and requirements of the region and feeds them into the participatory process and the concept. Other planning regions should be able to benefit from the results. 

Subproject IZT

The aim of the sub-project "Regional Planning at the Interface with Energy System Modelling - Plan" is to accompany a region in its planning procedures using an interactive dialogue and visualisation tool (StEmp tool) for collaborative planning of energy systems. With the help of "live" modelling, options for future energy development are to be discussed objectively. The sub-project examines which requirements must be fulfilled in order to optimally integrate the StEmp tool into regional planning. In the practice-oriented project, a practical region will be selected after three planning regions have been considered. In the practice region, the StEmp tool will be directly integrated into the planning process and dialogue, coordination and conflict resolution processes for the further expansion of renewable energies will be jointly planned and implemented. In three events professionally moderated by Team Ewen, the actors are accompanied and evaluated both from an energy-economic and a socio-scientific point of view. The central point is not the highest possible expansion target, but a lasting and constructive dialogue, from which the planning procedures benefit and participatory processes that become valuable components of a lively planning culture. Ultimately, challenges on the ground can be identified at an early stage and the process as a whole can ultimately be accelerated. 

Further information