Meet the team interview: Dr. Katerina Kermeli and Dr. ir. Wina Crijns-Graus

 

   

Dr. Katerina Kermeli and Dr. ir. Wina Crijns-Graus from the University of Utrecht

What work do you do at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University? What is your role in sEEnergies project?

The Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development is a leading research institute at Utrecht University and employs about 200 people. We conduct disciplinary and multi-disciplinary research and provide education in sustainable development, energy science and innovation science.

In the sEEnergies project, we are leader of Work Package (WP) 3, which aims to determine industrial energy efficiency potentials up to 2050 for all EU countries. As WP Leader, we are also responsible for linking WP3 to other work packages in the project such as the energy system modelling and the mapping in WP5.

What was your motivation to be part of the sEEnergies project?

In this project are involved Katerina Kermeli (PhD), Wina Crijns-Graus (PhD) and Professor Ernst Worrell, who have much experience in assessments of energy savings and GHG emission reduction options for industries. In this project we can use and expand our knowledge of industrial energy use and waste heat availability.

What are the main challenges that you encounter during the sEEnergies project implementation?

One of our tasks is the assessment of additional impacts of energy efficiency measures in industries such as the impact on industrial productivity and reduced maintenance. These are impacts that can greatly affect the profitability of energy efficiency measures, but they are particularly challenging to calculate since they are very case specific.

What do you hope to achieve by the end of the project?

We hope to have shed light on industrial energy savings potentials on country level in the EU and where the biggest potentials are and also about which additional non-energy related impacts of energy efficiency measures are especially important to consider. Also, we hope to provide the needed information on decarbonization options that exist within the industry so that their impact on the whole energy system can be adequately assessed.

What do you personally find most interesting about sEEnergies’ expected outcomes?

In the WP we help with the development of the IndustryPLAN model, in which each industry sector in each member state can be analyzed in depth. IndustryPLAN will e.g., allow for improved analysis of excess heat potentials. The outputs from the IndustryPLAN model will serve as input in the EnergyPLAN model (in WP6).

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