Towards a Classification Scheme for Co-Simulation Approaches in Energy

Simulations become more and more crucial in the field of future energy systems. This is caused by the increasing complexity of energy systems that consist of a variety of subsystems such as supply infrastructures, production, consumption, markets, communication, meteorology etc. Co-simulation tools provide the possibility to combine models of these subsystems and run them in a coordinated simulation. However, such simulations become more and more complex, making it improbable that the user of a simulation is the same person that develops the simulation system. To facilitate the communication between users and developers of co-simulation tools and to help the user to find the suitable software for his purpose, the authors suggest a typification of co-simulation tools. This is done by identifying the most relevant attributes each specified by a set of possible configurations. The utilization of the developed schemed is demonstrated by applying it to the mosaik co-simulation framework.