Challenge 14 - Visualising the impact of climate change for the European power system #15
Description
Stream 1 - Data Visualization
Mentors
- Aron Zuiker
- Laurent Dubus
- Ahmed Elshami
- Katharina Gruber
- Hanno Mueller
Skill Required
• Experience in processing and analysing large datasets
• Programming skills relevant to data science and working with shape files (preferably Python)
• Familiarity with weather and climate data, preferably with energy data as well
• Experience with visualisation (mapping, graphs, time series)
• Acquainted with open-source collaboration (Git)
• Ability to create clear documentation / communication
Goal
Visualising impacts of climate change in the Pan-European Climate Database for the European power sector for different SSP and climate model scenarios.
Description of the Challenge
The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) conducts several large-scale system development studies to support planning for Europe’s future electricity system. Among these, the two most prominent are the European Resource Adequacy Assessment (ERAA) and the Ten-Year Network Development Plan (TYNDP), both of which consider long-term developments extending to 2050.
The ERAA is a forward-looking analysis that evaluates the security of electricity supply across Europe over the coming decade. In contrast, the TYNDP provides a broader vision of the future European power system, examining how transmission infrastructure, cross-border interconnections, and energy storage can facilitate the energy transition in a cost-effective and reliable manner.
To perform these studies, ENTSO-E models the entire pan-European power system, including generation assets, electricity demand, and transmission networks. The analyses assess whether electricity supply can meet demand under a wide range of possible conditions, including varying weather patterns and unexpected generation outages. This is particularly important because both electricity production—especially from renewable sources such as wind and solar—and electricity consumption are strongly influenced by weather conditions. The increasing frequency of extreme and unpredictable weather events due to climate change further reinforces the need to consider a broad range of climate scenarios.
Climate information is incorporated through the Pan-European Climate Database (PECD), developed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). The PECD is a comprehensive dataset specifically designed for energy applications. In addition to historical climate data, it includes climate projections that enable the assessment of how climate change may affect renewable generation patterns and temperature-dependent electricity demand. This supports more robust scenario modelling and helps system planners prepare for future conditions shaped by evolving weather patterns.
In 2025, C3S released the latest version of the dataset (PECD v4.2). This version provides both historical data (from 1950 onward) and future climate projections based on four Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP) and six CMIP6 climate models, covering the period from 2015 to 2100.
Due to its novelty and large size, it remains largely unexplored how the climate and energy variables contained in PECD evolve over time and how they differ across the various SSPs and climate models. To improve understanding of the potential impacts of climate change represented in the dataset, ENTSO-E has defined a challenge to develop an interactive (geographical) visualization tool. The objective of this tool is to enable PECD users to quickly view key indicators by presenting them in different ways, such as plotting them on a map or in graphs.
Some examples of questions that the tool should help answer are:
• How might changes in precipitation affect hydropower generation in the Alps in 2060?
• How will wind speeds in the North Sea change in the coming decades?
• What impact could increasing temperatures have on solar PV generation in Italy?
The challenge consists of the following main tasks:
• Defining relevant key indicators in collaboration with ENTSO-E
• Preprocessing the PECD 4.2 to extract these indicators
• Developing an interactive (geographical) visualisation tool (for example using Python and Jupyter Notebook environments) to present and compare these indicators
• Write documentation / guidelines on how to use and maintain the tool
The PECD 4.2 is publicly available and can be access via this link: https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/datasets/sis-energy-pecd?tab=overview
Evaluation criteria
- Feasibility
- Easy to maintain / Future-proof approach
- Matching requirements
- Comprehensibility
- Transferability
- Innovative approach;