About
We are proud of the success of ABM4Energy Conference 2026 on Agent-Based Modeling for Energy Economics and Energy Policy in Vienna. The conference provided a platform for researchers and practitioners to to discuss many interesting topics on agent-based modeling in energy and good networking opportunities.
Agenda
The program featured two keynotes, 23 scientific presentations covering a wide range of ABM topics, a poster session, four hands-on workshops, and numerous networking opportunities, including a guided city walk giving insights into Viennas energy supply, a conference dinner, and informal interactions during breaks. See the program and workshops below.
Agenda-2026-4You can also download the program.
Workshops
1) How to Model Competing Flexibility Options (Fast) by Christoph Schimeczek
Since Release 4.0, the Agent-based Market model for the Investigation of Renewable and Integrated Energy Systems (AMIRIS) offers a fast and reliable method for modelling the competition between different flexibility options on the day-ahead electricity market. This method was recently published using an example of competing pumped-hydro storage units on the German electricity market, but is also applicable to other types of flexibility options, e.g. electric vehicles, flexible heat pumps, or load shifting.
In this workshop, we explain the details of this new algorithm, discuss its advantages and limitations and give examples of its application. In the second, interactive part, workshop participants will apply the algorithm on their own computer and learn how to employ it for their own modelling tasks.
Target Audience
Students / Researchers interested in modelling flexibility options and their competition. Prior knowledge of AMIRIS is not required.
Schedule
- 15 min: Introduction to AMIRIS
- 15 min: Details on the modelling of competing flexibility options
- 30 min: Hands-on – Setup and Execution of AMIRIS
- 30 min: Hands-on – Modelling examples for competing flexibility options
Acknowledgements
The underlying research was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the CETPartnership, the European Partnership under Joint Call 2022 for research proposals, co-funded by the European Commission (GA N°101069750) and with the funding organisations listed on the CETPartnership website.
2) Lowering entry-barriers for energy market simulations – investigating user-demands of UI for ABM together by Jannik Raskob and Florian Maurer
Open-source energy market simulations often demand both, deep domain expertise for accurate parameterization and technical proficiency to navigate program options and behavior. This combination creates significant entry barriers for an effcient use of these tools. Lowering the technical threshold to use simulation frameworks is therefore essential. An effective solution is to provide an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) that provides a convenient access to the provided functionality. A well-designed GUI can further minimize required domain expertise by interactively guiding users through the parameterization workflow.
In this workshop we present ASSUME GUI, a graphical user interface for the ASSUME framework. The ASSUME framework allows its users to create and run simulations of energy markets, allowing them to investigate the effect of different market setups on the behavior of its participants.
ASSUME serves as basis for research on how energy markets need to be structured in order to effectively meet specific objectives (for example, facilitating the transition to renewable energy).
We created ASSUME GUI as a web-based tool that lets users create and run market simulations with the ASSUME Framework without ever writing any code. By lowering the barrier to entry, ASSUME GUI enables researchers with limited technical experience to design and execute experiments. Its architecture enables convenient access from any modern web browser without installing additional software. This can be advantageous
in organisational environments where users may not have permission to install software on their devices.
Agenda
In this workshop, we will
• cover the basic concepts of ASSUME
• create simulations with the ASSUME GUI together
• discuss requirements, intuitiveness, range of functions, and possible applications
Target Audience
This workshop is aimed at participants with a basic understanding of energy markets. No programming skills
are required. The schedule is as follows:
• 20min – Introduction into ASSUME and ASSUME GUI
• 25min – Interactive ASSUME GUI demo for everyone
• 45min – Breakout session and brainstorming – whats next?
3) Paper Tandem Session
Session for researchers to get peer-review feedback on their paper drafts.
4) ABM’s contribution to an accelerated energy transition by Felix Nitsch, Viktor Zobernig, Kristina Nienhaus, Thorsten Weiskopf and Gunter Grimm
ABM is uniquely suited to capture adoption dynamics, market formation, and emergent behavior in energy transitions, but its contribution is undersold.
Possible explanations may include poor integration with optimization-based approaches and a lack of shared validation standards.
Agenda
- Short introduction and motivation (5 min)
- World-Café (60 min)
- Where is ABM uniquely irreplaceable?
- What prevents broader adoption?
- Lessons learned and research agenda
- Report from World Café (10min)
- Outlook and next steps (15min)
Organizers
The ABM4Energy 2026 conference was organized and hosted by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna in cooperation with Austrian Institute of Technology, Vienna and was supported by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, German Aerospace Center, and INATECH, University of Freiburg.
Scientific Program Committee
- Johannes Schmidt, BOKU University
- Tara Esterl, AIT – Austrian Institute of Technology
- Laurens de Vries, TU Delft
- Dogan Keles, DTU – Technical University of Denmark
- Anke Weidlich, University of Freiburg
- Christoph Schimeczek, DLR – German Aerospace Center
- Wolf Fichtner, KIT – Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Organizing Committee
- Kristina Nienhaus, German Aerospace Center
- Thorsten Weiskopf, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
- Viktor Zobernig, Austrian Institute of Technology
- Felix Nitsch, BOKU University
- Gunter Grimm, University of Freiburg