Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators.


Bio-Energy Carbon Capture and Storage. CCS applied to Bio-Energy, thus resulting in a net negative emission of carbon dioxide.


Gaseous renewable energy source derived from agricultural biomass (dedicated crops, by-products and agricultural waste and animal waste), agro-industrial (waste from the food processing chain) and the Organic Fraction Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW).


This approach of the scenario building process collects supply and demand data from Gas and Electricity TSOs.

Blue Hydrogen

Hydrogen obtained from natural gas or industrial residual gases by splitting them into hydrogen and (CO2). The CO2 is then captured and stored/used.


Compound annual growth rate.


Capital expenditure.

Carbon budget

This is the amount of carbon dioxide the world can emit while still having a likely chance of limiting average global temperature rise to 1,5°C above pre-industrial levels, an internationally agreed-upon target.

Carbon price

Cost applied to carbon pollution to encourage polluters to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases they emit into the atmosphere.


Cost Benefit Analysis carried out to define to what extent a project is worthwhile from a social perspective.


Carbon Capture and Storage. Process of sequestrating CO2 and storing it in such a way that it won’t enter the atmosphere.


Carbon Capture and Usage. The captured CO2, instead of being stored in geological formations, is used to create other products, such as plastic.


Combined heat and power.


2015 United Nations Climate Chance Conference.

Curtailed Electricity

Curtailment is a reduction in the output of a generator from otherwise available resources (e. g. wind or sunlight), typically on an unintentional basis. Curtailments can result when operators or utilities control wind and solar generators to reduce output to minimize congestion of transmission or otherwise manage the system or achieve the optimum mix of resources.

Coal phase-out

Coal is the most carbon intensive fossil fuel and phasing it out is a key step to achieve the emissions reductions needed to limit global warming to 1.5°C, as enshrined in the Paris Agreement.


Demand Side Response. Consumers have an active role in softening peaks in energy demand by changing their energy consumption according to the energy price and availability.

(Kalte) Dunkelflaute

German for „(cold) dark doldrums” expresses a climate case, where in addition to a 2-week cold spell, variable RES electricity generation is low due to the lack of wind and sunlight.


European Commission.


Electric vehicle.


Gross domestic product.


Greenhouse gas.

Hybrid Heat Pump

Heating system that combines an electric heat pump with a gas condensing boiler to optimize energy efficiency.


World Energy Outlook.

Indirect electricity demand

Indirect electrification means that electricity is not used as a direct replacement for fossil fuels, but as an input in industrial processes.


Levelised costs of electricity. It represents the average revenue per unit of electricity generated that would be required to recover the costs of building and operating a generating plant during an assumed financial life and duty cycle.


Liquefied natural gas.


Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry. Sink of CO2 made possible by the fact that atmospheric CO2 can accumulate as carbon in vegetation and soils in terrestrial ecosystems


Net calorific value. The heat produced by combustion of a fuel at a constant pressure of 1 atmosphere, under the condition that all water in the products remains in the form of vapor. With gross calorific value on the other hand, the heat produced by condensation of all vapors is also included (see also GCV).


National Energy and Climate Plans are the new framework within which EU Member States have to plan, in an integrated manner, their climate and energy objectives, targets, policies and measures to the European Commission. Countries will have to develop NECPs on a ten-year rolling basis, with an update halfway through the implementation period. The NECPs covering the first period from 2021 to 2030 will have to ensure that the Union’s 2030 targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions, renewable energy, energy efficiency and electricity interconnection are met.


Non-governmental Organisation.


Operational expenditure.


Power to gas. Technology that uses electricity to produce hydrogen (Power to Hydrogen – P2H2) by splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen (electrolysis). The hydrogen produced can then be combined with CO2 to obtain synthetic methane (Power to Methane – P2CH4).


Power to liquids. Combination of hydrogen from ­electrolysis and Fischer-Tropsch process to obtain ­synthetic liquid fuels.


Project of Common Interest.


Hydrogen obtained from P2H2.


Renewable methane, could be biomethane or synthetic methane produced by renewable energy sources only.


The PRIMES energy model simulates the European energy system and markets on a country-by-country basis and across Europe for the entire energy system. The model provides projections of detailed energy balances, both for demand and supply, CO2 emissions, investment in demand and supply, energy technology penetration, prices and costs.


Renewable energy source.

Shale gas

Shale gas is natural gas that is found trapped within shale formations (e. g. via fracking).

Synthetic methane

Fuel gas that can be produced from fossil fuels such as lignite coal, oil shale, or from biofuels (when it is named bio-SNG) or from renewable electrical energy.


The “Top-Down Carbon Budget” scenario building process is an approach that uses the “bottom-up” model information gathered from the Gas and Electricity TSOs. The methodologies are developed in line with the Carbon Budget approach.


Temperature REgression and loAd Projection with UNcertainty Analysis. Software that allows to perform electric load prediction starting from data analysis of the historical time series (electric load, temperature, other climatic variables) and evaluation of the future evolution of the market (e. g., penetration of heat pump, electric vehicles, batteries, population and industrial growth). It has been developed by Milano Multiphysics for ENTSO-E.


Transmission System Operator.


Ten-Year Network Development Plan.