MUst Project Kickoff

On May 12, 2025, the MUst research project—which focuses on modeling uncertainties for system-integrated market area coupling — was officially launched . The Chair of Energy Economics at TU Dresden is coordinating the collaborative project together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology (IWU). The industry partners are 50Hertz Transmission and Return on Data. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) and will run for 36 months.

The focus is on further developing methods for determining trading domains in the European electricity market. Trading domains define which electricity volumes can be traded between market areas and are therefore crucial for the efficiency of European market coupling. With the rising share of renewable energy and the increasing complexity of the grid infrastructure, there is a growing need to incorporate these uncertainties into the determination of trading domains in a methodologically sound manner. This is precisely where MUst comes in: The goal is to develop probabilistic trading domains that explicitly account for uncertainties and thus strengthen the resilience and efficiency of the electricity system. Another methodological focus is the transfer of an established method from industrial process analysis to energy system modeling through close collaboration between the Chair and Fraunhofer IWU.

50Hertz Transmission supports the project’s method development by contributing operational expertise and real-world conditions. Return on Data contributes to the development of data interfaces and the preparation of the analysis environments.

We look forward to collaborating within the consortium and to the insights that MUst will provide for the further development of market area coupling.