Table 8 Attribute definition of the agent decision-making process in MUSE^17,37.

Objectives

Obj.

A combination of economic, environmental, and technology aspects along with personal motivations.

Search Rule

SR

A collection of information about available technologies and processing abilities of the decision makers. SR leads to the search space (SS) of each agent which includes all defined possible technologies in the energy sector.

Decision strategy

DS

There are two DSs: single- and multi-objective. The single-objective DS uses a merit-order approach where technologies are ranked according to the main agent’s objective. Three possible multi-objective DS approaches are implemented within MUSE³⁷.

Type, new or retrofit

TP

Two types of agents: new or retrofit. There is a distinction between retrofit and new equipment.

It requires a linkage of each new agent to one retrofit agent in order to transfer its stock to a retrofit agent for the later renewal of the assets.

Budget

B

Refers to the maximum budget (expend limit) that each agent can allocate for technology investment.

Maturity Threshold

MT

Indicates the market share that a technology needs to have before it appears in the SS of an agent. This value varies according to agent’s openness towards new technologies.

Technology Stock

TS

A set of technologies available for each agent, obtained via calibration to energy balance and surveyed data.

Technology Ownership

TO

The percentage of each technology that an agent owns in the base year as a result of the calibration.

Agent Population Percentage

PP

Proportion to the total demand based on the percentage of the population represented by agent (obtained from statistics or surveys)

Heat density restriction

HDR

Refers to the technology restriction depending on the actual heat density of the zone that an agent belongs to. This is a particular feature developed and applied for this research into the MUSE framework.