Welcome to COST Action TD1207 Mathematical Optimization in the Decision Support Systems for Efficient and Robust Energy Networks

Energy Production and Distribution (EP&D) is among the biggest challenges of our time, since energy is a scarce resource whose efficient production and fair distribution is associated with many technical, economical, political and ethical issues like environmental protection and people health. EP&D networks have rapidly increased their size and complexity, e.g. with the introduction and interconnection of markets within the EU. Thus, there is an increasing need of systems supporting the operational, regulatory and design decisions through a highly inter-disciplinary approach, where experts of all the concerned fields contribute to the definition of appropriate mathematical models. This is particularly challenging because these models require the simultaneous use of many different mathematical optimization tools and the verification by experts of the underlying engineering and financial issues. The COST framework is instrumental for this Action to be able to coordinate the inter-disciplinary efforts of scientists and industrial players at the European level.