The US Department of Energy and the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science hub, in cooperation with the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, organised, in September 2016, a workshop dedicated to understanding the water-energy nexus, in particular integrated water and power system modelling.

Over 70 scientific experts, government officials and stakeholders, along with representatives from international organisations and industry, took part in the two-day event, which was organised at the JRC's site in Ispra, Italy. The workshop focused on sharing scenarios, case studies, and modelling activities that featured energy-water trade-offs in the power system. The participants also identified opportunities to use innovative power-water linkages in models to inform policy and other decision-making, and also discussed future priorities for modelling cooperation.

Participants in the workshop identified a number of challenges for power and water modelling arising from twenty-first century electricity and water infrastructure developments. For example, the emergence of flexibility as a desired attribute in the electricity sector has implications for the design and operation of both electricity and water infrastructure, and models can help to inform innovative thinking on both infrastructure design and operation levels, including interface with markets.

It was stressed at the workshop that benchmarking, validation, and model inter-comparisons are needed for shared learning across multiple models. A new workshop will be jointly organised in approximately 18 months' time to report on progress in addressing the key challenges and needs identified.

Based on the input received from workshop participants, the European Commission and the US Department of Energy will produce an overview of existing and future modelling activities and tools relevant to the water-energy nexus.