In a world powered by intermittent renewable energy, electrolyzers will play a central role in converting electrical energy into chemical energy, thereby decoupling the production of transport fuels and chemicals from today’s fossil resources and decreasing the reliance on bioenergy. Solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) offer two major advantages over alternative electrolysis technologies. First, their high operating temperatures result in favorable thermodynamics and reaction kinetics, enabling unrivaled conversion efficiencies. Second, SOECs can be thermally integrated with downstream chemical syntheses, such as the production of methanol, dimethyl ether, synthetic fuels, or ammonia. SOEC technology has witnessed tremendous improvements during the past 10 to 15 years and is approaching maturity, driven by advances at the cell, stack, and system levels.

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Municipal activities play an important role in national and global CO 2-emission reduction efforts, withNordic countries at the forefront thanks to their energy planning tradition and high penetration of renewable energy sources. In thiswork, we present a case study ofthe Danish municipality of Sønderborg, whose aim is to reach zero net CO 2 emissions by 2029. Sønderborg has an official strategic plan towards 2029, which we compared with four alternative scenarios to investigate how the municipality could approach its target in the most energy-efficient and cost-effective way while simultaneously keeping biomass and waste consumption close to the limits of the locally available residual resources. We modelled all sectors of the energy system on the municipal scale, applying a broad range of energy conversion technologies, including advanced biomass conversion technologies and reversible electrolysis. We constructed five scenarios, each representing a different energy mix for Sønderborg's energy system in 2029. We modelledthese scenarios using the mixed-integer linear optimization toolSifre. We compared the results for the five scenarios using four indicators: annual total system cost, total energy system efficiency, annual net system CO 2 emissions and total annual biomass consumption. The results show that scenarios with a high degree of electrificationperform better on the selected indicators than scenarios with a high degree of biomass utilization. Moreover, the incorporation of advanced conversion technologies such as electrolysis, fuel cells and methanol production further reduces both the total system cost and net CO 2 of the highly electrified energy system. Our sensitivity analysis demonstrates that scenarios with a low biomass consumption and a high degree of electrification are less dependent on changes in energy prices. We conclude that in order to achieve their CO 2 emission goals in the most energy-efficient, costeffective and sustainable way, municipalities similar toSønderborg should compare a wide range of energy system configurations, for example, scenarios with a high degree of electrification and a limited biomass use.

The primary objective of a power system is to safely provide reliable energy services to society at an affordable cost. In many countries, this objective has been supplemented by another, meeting energy demand with sustainable resources, which has culminated in the energy transition to low carbon and zero-carbon energy systems. This transition, occurring rapidly around the world, is characterized by the increasing penetration of variable renewable energy, inverter-based resources (IBR), and distributed energy resources (DER).While contributing towards sustainability goals, these trends can potentially compromise the primary objective of a power system given existing planning and operational paradigms. To continue to meet the primary objective as power systems transition, advances in the operation and planning of the power system are required. To meet this need, several system operators on the cutting edge of this transition have collaborated with technical institutions around the world to create the Global Power System Transformation (G-PST) Consortium. The consortium aims to support advanced system operator research, development activities, and all system operators globally with knowledge and training as they transform their power systems.

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