The main objective of this project is to develop sustainable electricity planning models to support decision making on future electricity generation strategies.

The research focus on the three dimensions of the sustainability:

The proposed methodology aims to integrate:

	the cost and emissions minimisation objectives;
	the technical challenges brought by the increasing RES integration;
	the social assessment of technologies, projects and scenarios.

	To develop new optimization models for electricity power planning, based on a multi-periodic approach combining optimization models for long term capacity expansion with models for the unit commitment process, based on short term optimization of the available resources.
	To apply the proposed model to the design of optimal power plans for Portugal, measuring the expected impacts on cost, emissions and external energy dependency.
	To propose participatory methodologies for addressing the social dimension of the electricity planning problem. The social analysis will focus on the evaluation of technologies, particular projects and scenarios.
	To apply the proposed methodology to the design of optimal power plans for Portugal.
	To evaluate electricity generation projects in Portugal using muticriteria tools and real options analysis, demonstrating how these tools can be applied in practice.