Open Access

Inci Yueksel-Erguen, Thorsten Koch, Janina Zittel

• The decarbonization of the European energy system demands a rapid and comprehensive transformation while securing energy supplies at all times. Still, natural gas plays a crucial role in this process. Recent unexpected events forced drastic changes in gas routes throughout Europe. Therefore, operational-level analysis of the gas transport networks and technical capacities to cope with these transitions using unconventional scenarios has become essential. Unfortunately, data limitations often hinder such analyses. To overcome this challenge, we propose a mathematical model-based scenario generator that enables operational analysis of the European gas network using open data. Our approach focuses on the consistent analysis of specific partitions of the gas transport network, whose network topology data is readily available. We generate reproducible and consistent node-based gas in/out-flow scenarios for these defined network partitions to enable feasibility analysis and data quality assessment. Our proposed method is demonstrated through several applications that address the feasibility analysis and data quality assessment of the German gas transport network. By using open data and a mathematical modeling approach, our method allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the gas transport network's behavior and assists in decision-making during the transition to decarbonization.