Optimization-based decision workflow for designing regional renewable energy systems

The systematic planning of regional energy systems remains an issue of utmost importance for modern society. Thus, developing tools for effective design and communication with regional actors remains a relevant goal in research. This work presents an optimization-based decision workflow for regional energy planning aimed at enhancing stakeholder engagement and supporting informed decision-making during early design stages. Decision-making takes place within administrative units that exercise governmental functions through a top-down decentralization of responsibilities, often via federal structures. Within a given state, these units may include regions, counties, or political districts, as classified by the levels of the NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) system. Consequently, within the decision-support process, stakeholders typically comprise the leaders of these administrative units, who possess substantive operational influence over the development of their respective entities. The proposed workflow integrates a rigorous optimization approach that permits the systematic generation of multiple solutions and the assessment of various scenarios for a given territory. The methodology is demonstrated through a case study in Carnica-Rosental, Austria, wherein four scenarios served as a platform for stakeholder dialogue and the development of integrated regional energy systems. The proposed workflow offers a powerful decision-support tool for systematic regional energy planning capable of providing insightful information about the region and serving as a platform for policymaking.