Energy Strategy and Environmental Effects Research Group (E-SEE)
The Energy Strategy and Environmental Effects Research Group (E-SEE) brings together experts from multiple disciplines to address both fundamental and applied research challenges in the energy sector. Our researchers represent a wide range of professional backgrounds – including electrical engineering, energy engineering, landscape architecture, meteorology, physics, and geography – ensuring that complex questions of energy strategy and environmental impact are approached with a truly interdisciplinary perspective.
Our Team
Lilla Barancsuk – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3036-0133
Endre Börcsök, PhD – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4883-9839
Tímea Erdei, PhD – https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7256-5025
Péter Füri, PhD – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9551-2871
Bálint Hartmann, PhD – ttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-5271-2681
Boglárka Molnár
Veronika Oláhné Groma, PhD – https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0893-5591
Bálint Sinkovics, PhD – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8832-8734
Tamás Soha – https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9404-7472
Milán Sőrés – https://orcid.org/0009-0007-9906-298X
Contact
For more information, please contact: olahne.groma.veronika@ek.hun-ren.hu
Energy System Security
The Energy System Security focus area covers research on the stability of electric power systems, including the challenges of declining system inertia, cascading failures, and modeling with synchronous oscillators. It also addresses developments that enhance resilience, protection against outages caused by accidents and intentional attacks, and infrastructure-centered, complex systems approaches to energy strategy. A key objective of this focus area is to investigate the factors that determine the fault tolerance of power systems, applying methods from power engineering, network theory, and geoinformatics.
Electrical Power Engineering
The Electrical Power Engineering focus area is dedicated to the computer-based modeling of power systems and their components, the integration of renewable energy sources, distributed generation, and energy storage technologies, as well as the maximization of local energy use. This work is supported by a dedicated educational laboratory, which enables the investigation of battery lifetime characteristics and provides a platform for research and training activities.
Commissioning of Hungary’s first sodium–sulfur battery at the KFKI Campus
Ongoing Projects
The focus area is a partner in the 2021-2.1.1-EK-2021-00002 “Tesseract Energy Storage” research–development–innovation project. Within this framework, Hungary’s first sodium–sulfur (NaS) battery will be installed at the Research Centre, representing a significant step forward in national energy storage development.
Implementation of a Pilot Project Supporting the Formation and Operation of Energy Communities
Energy communities are expected to become key actors in the future of electricity systems, as they can simultaneously enhance grid flexibility, promote energy independence, and support a socially just transition. On the one hand, in their aggregated form, they are able to respond to system operator requirements, thereby contributing efficiently to balancing services and overall system stability. On the other hand, they provide opportunities to optimize local energy production and consumption, particularly in areas where grid infrastructure is weak or limited. Furthermore, energy communities can help mitigate energy poverty and foster active citizen participation in the energy transition.
To ensure sustainable development and the integration of energy markets, there is a need for a regulatory framework that is shared but not fully uniform, providing both national-level flexibility and the possibility for cross-border energy communities to evolve. Achieving this requires precise legal and technological definitions of energy communities, the development of cooperation mechanisms among different actors, and the introduction of appropriate financial incentives. The energy system of the KFKI Campus offers an excellent pilot case to address these challenges. The campus already operates with a partially decentralized, multi-level, redundant structure. Its existing solar generation, energy storage, and heat pump systems provide the foundation of a microgrid-type operation, which is currently being further developed with intelligent energy management and monitoring systems. This enhanced infrastructure will serve both as a testbed for methodological research and as a demonstrative model for domestic scientific and industrial applications.
Modeling and Optimization of Energy Communities
The aim of this research activity is to model and optimize the operation of renewable-based energy communities while considering multiple energy vectors – electricity, heat, battery storage, and thermal storage. The modeling work relies on Python-based models and Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) methodology.
The research focuses on communities where participants have heterogeneous consumption and production profiles, share surplus energy through a common battery, and enhance flexibility by controlling specific loads such as heat pumps. The ultimate objective is to determine the optimal composition of such communities and the most effective operation of controllable assets, with the goal of maximizing energy sharing and self-consumption.
Omnes: Energy Community Modeling Software
In collaboration with the Politecnico di Torino and the Department of Automation and Applied Informatics at Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), we are developing Omnes, a general-purpose energy community modeling software. The software is designed to flexibly handle different energy vectors and user configurations. Thanks to its modular structure, it is equally suitable for research-oriented simulations and practical optimization tasks.
The aim of Omnes is to provide a unified framework for the design of energy communities, the analysis of their operation, and the testing of intelligent control strategies. The software is being developed in Python, is fully open-source, and is available on GitHub: https://github.com/ntatrishvili/Omnes
Consumption–production balance of a two-household energy community in winter (above) and summer (below).
Ongoing Projects
2020-3.1.4-ZFR-EKM – Implementation of a pilot project supporting the formation and operation of energy communities – “Berkenye, the Village of the Future” PV+ES Park Pilot Project
Energy Meteorology and Climatology
With the rapid spread of photovoltaic (PV) systems, ensuring grid security and service quality, as well as maximizing the efficient use of solar energy, requires increasingly accurate medium- and short-term production forecasts. The aim of our research is to develop a reliable ultra-short-term forecasting method (up to one hour) that can accurately predict incoming global radiation and PV output. This method is designed to complement the hourly-resolution forecasts provided by traditional meteorological models.
Since PV production is primarily influenced by cloud cover, which is highly variable, developing such a method poses a significant challenge. For our investigations, we use data from a pilot monitoring station at the KFKI Campus, equipped with PV generation units, a wide-angle sky camera, and a dedicated weather station. Our research introduces a novel deep learning approach specifically optimized for low-resource computational environments. Results show that the method achieves 10% higher forecasting accuracy for 1–20 minute horizons compared to persistence models, while significantly reducing computational costs relative to ConvLSTM models used as benchmarks.
Examples of sky camera image processing (left panel) and forecasting of GHI and DHI parameters on a 1–20 minute horizon (right panel).
Ongoing Projects
2020-3.1.4-ZFR-EKM – Implementation of a pilot project supporting the formation and operation of energy communities – “Berkenye, the Village of the Future” PV+ES Park Pilot Project
Energy Statistics Focus Area
One of the European Union’s key objectives is the establishment of a carbon-neutral energy sector. Many Member States aim to achieve this highly ambitious target through an extremely high share of weather-dependent renewable resources. In countries where renewable potential is limited, or where resource diversification is considered a priority, nuclear energy may play an important role.
Our research group comprehensively models possible electricity generation alternatives together with the energy storage capacities required for system operation, at both national and European scales. Optimal resource allocation is determined through multi-objective optimization, allowing decision criteria to be tuned on a country-specific basis, while enabling statistical analysis of the outcomes.
For both renewable and nuclear energy, it is essential to assess the greenhouse gas emissions across the full life cycle (LCA), from raw material extraction to decommissioning. In our research, we compare LCA emissions of various electricity generation technologies (solar, wind, hydro, biomass, coal, gas, oil, etc.). For weather-dependent renewables, we also evaluate the carbon footprint of necessary storage solutions, such as pumped-storage hydropower, batteries, and hydrogen. In the case of nuclear power, we give particular attention to the role of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).
Ongoing Projects
Since 2021, through our participation in the EUROfusion-WPSES project (EUROfusion Consortium under Horizon 2020 Grant Agreement No. 633053 – Eurofusion), we have contributed as part of an international team to the development of long-term energy scenarios.
Spatial Analysis of Renewable Energy Resources
The aim of our research is to provide professional guidance for the spatial planning and siting of renewable energy resources in Hungary, with a particular focus on solar and wind energy. As a starting point, we rely on the European Union’s RED III Directive, which obliges Member States to identify “Suitable Areas” for renewable energy deployment, as well as “Accelerated Permit Granting Areas” where simplified permitting procedures apply.
The designation of such areas requires the careful consideration of nature conservation, landscape protection, socio-economic, environmental, and energy-related factors. We place special emphasis on the protection of biodiversity and on the involvement of local communities in the planning processes, as social acceptance is one of the key conditions for successful implementation.
Our research develops modern and reliable geoinformatics databases that support spatial-level planning of the national energy transition. Through a multidisciplinary approach, these data and analyses assist decision-makers in implementing developments that are both environmentally responsible and socially inclusive.
GIS-based site suitability analysis in Hungary for the placement of new wind farms within the RENewLand project.
Ongoing Project
Within the framework of the RENewLand project (2023–2025), our research group aims to identify areas suitable for accelerating the deployment of renewable energy sources – primarily solar and wind – in line with the requirements of the EU Renewable Energy Directive.
