Sd-25269 Postdoc in Gas, Hydrogen and Thermal Energy Systems for Digital Twins

Description
**Temporary contract | 24 months | Belvaux**:
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**Are you passionate about research? So are we Come and join us**:
The Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) is a Research and Technology Organization (RTO) active in the fields of materials, environment and IT. By transforming scientific knowledge into technologies, smart data and tools, LIST empowers citizens in their choices, public authorities in their decisions and businesses in their strategies.

You will join the Intelligent and Clean Energy Systems (ICES) research unit at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and will actively contribute to the **NCER-D2ET** (Data-Driven Energy Transition Digital Twin) project, a national strategic initiative to develop Luxembourg’s energy digital twin platform.

**NCER-D2ET** aims to design and implement an integrated, data-driven digital twin of the national energy system, capable of simulating and analyzing multi-energy infrastructures (electricity, heat, gas, hydrogen) across spatial and temporal scales. The project involves the modelling of energy infrastructures, the development of scenario-based simulations, and the generation of actionable indicators to support decision-making. You will be part of the team responsible for the infrastructure modelling domain, which serves as a technical foundation for interoperability with energy market simulations and policy evaluation tools.

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**How will you contribute?**:
You will join a multidisciplinary team working on Luxembourg’s national energy digital twin as part of the NCER-D2ET initiative. Your role will support the modelling, simulation and analysis of non-electrical infrastructures—namely gas networks, hydrogen pathways, and thermal systems—within integrated multi-vector scenarios. You will contribute to the development of transition pathways and to the interpretation of simulation outputs to assess systemic indicators such as energy resilience, carbon footprint, and infrastructure cost-efficiency. You will play a key role in ensuring the technical consistency of non-electric vectors across the three project scenarios, including their coupling with power systems and their responsiveness to policy and market inputs.

You will be mainly in charge of:

- Modelling gas and hydrogen infrastructures at national scale, including storage, injection, transport, blending and end-use across various transition scenarios.
- Supporting the integration of thermal infrastructures (e.g. district heating, building-level heating, thermal storage) within multi-energy simulation frameworks.
- Contributing to the definition and implementation of use cases related to heat pumps vs. district heating and their interaction with other energy carriers (electricity, gas, hydrogen).
- Collaborating with the senior research engineer and Postdoc P1 to ensure cross-vector coherence in infrastructure models and boundary conditions.
- Participating in the design and execution of scenario simulations, including policy
- and technology-driven futures (e.g. hydrogen penetration, DH decarbonization).
- Assisting in the extraction and visualization of KPIs such as emissions, system adequacy, infrastructure costs and operational risk.
- Supporting the production of technical documentation, deliverables, and contributions to collaborative publications.

**Education**
- PhD in Energy Systems, Mechanical Engineering, Process Engineering, Applied Physics, or a related field, with hands-on experience in modelling and analysis of thermal energy systems or energy transition scenarios.

**Experience and skills**
- Practical experience in modelling gas and/or hydrogen systems, including network flows, storage operation, injection constraints, and transport planning.
- Familiarity with thermal system simulation (district heating, heat pumps, CHP units, building loads, and thermal storage).
- Exposure to multi-vector energy modelling using tools such as PyPSA, Calliope, Modelica, or bespoke techno-economic simulators.
- Proficiency in Python, including data handling (pandas, NumPy), visualization (matplotlib) and integration within simulation workflows.
- Understanding of sector coupling (e.g. P2G, P2H), energy vector substitution, and flexible operation of hybrid energy systems.
- Ability to calibrate and compare alternative energy transition scenarios, integrating environmental, technological, and policy constraints.
- Experience conducting sensitivity analyses, generating KPIs, and managing simulation uncertainty.
- Interest in collaborating across disciplines (electrical, mechanical, policy, IT) and ability to interact with data engineers and IT specialists for model integration.
- Experience in communicating results through project reports, technical notes or publications is considered a plus.

**Language skills**
- Fluent in English (written and spoken). Knowledge of French, German, or Luxembourgish is considered an asset.

**Your LIST benefits**:

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