Evaluating Options and Implementing Multi-Objective Optimization in CLEWs

Background

The Water, Energy and Food nexus has become an essential framework for understanding the interdependence among resource systems, especially in regions facing competing development pressures while simultaneously battling climate change. Modelling these systems and interactions using a framework such as CLEWs is complex as it must account for often overlapping goals such as achieving energy security, water availability, or climate resilience. CLEWs models typically rely on cost minimization as the single objective function, and cross sectoral goals should be represented in terms of cost constraints. However, effective WEF nexus analysis requires balancing multiple sectoral goals as well as varying contexts which might not be fully captured in the economic framing of the models. To effectively capture cross-sectoral decisions, CLEWs models may need to incorporate multiple objective functions beyond cost minimization.

Areas for research

• Reviewing and evaluating different multi-objective optimization methodologies

• Explore existing models and objective functions used in optimization

• Integrated Energy modelling, understanding elements of an existing model

• Understanding the context of the model by reviewing policy documents of the country to come up with a new objective function

• Modelling a new objective function and evaluating it using the given model

Deliverables/outputs

This thesis project will analyze the current techno-economic potential for seasonal storages and determine the profitability of using such storages in a district heating system.

• Reviewing and comparing different multi-objective optimization methods

• Establishing the need for multi-objective optimization in CLEWs models

• Evaluating different objectives

• Implementing multiple objectives on the given CLEWs model by adding new objective functions

Duration

January - 4th of June 2026.

Division/Department

Division of Energy Systems – Department of Energy Technology

How to apply

Send an email expressing your interest in the topic to Shreyas Savanur (savanur@kth.se) or Shravan Kumar (skpk@kth.se).

Supervisory team

Examiner

Related literature

1. The climate, land, energy, and water systems (CLEWs) framework: a retrospective of activities and advances to 2019,Eunice Pereira Ramos et al 2021 Environ. Res. Lett. 16 033003 DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/abd34f

2. "Climate, Land, Energy and Water systems interactions – From key concepts to model implementation with OSeMOSYS": https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901122002167

3. Sharma, S., Kumar, V. A Comprehensive Review on Multi-objective Optimization Techniques: Past, Present and Future. Arch Computat Methods Eng 29, 5605–5633 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11831-022-09778-9

4. The water energy food nexus: A multi-objective optimization tool, Computers & Chemical Engineering, Volume 187, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compchemeng.2024.108718

5. Multi-Objective Optimization of the Food-Energy-Water Nexus Problem: A Review of the Key Concepts and Emerging Opportunities in Objective Functions, Decision Variables, and Optimization Techniques, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EF004718