Rate My Professor Erik Delarue

Delarue's research centers on optimizing low-carbon electricity generation systems with high penetration of intermittent renewables. He develops quantitative optimization models such as mixed-integer linear programming for unit commitment, TIMES for capacity expansion planning, equilibrium models for market interactions, and agent-based approaches for complex systems. Applications address energy policy and market design, including storage and demand flexibility, sector coupling of electricity-gas-heat, EU Emissions Trading System effects, renewable support mechanisms, resource adequacy, distribution tariffs, cross-border balancing, and capacity markets. He contributes to EnergyVille—a collaboration of KU Leuven, VITO, imec, and UHasselt—the KU Leuven Energy Institute, and the European Energy Research Alliance's Energy Systems Integration program. Notable publications include "Carbon Contracts for Difference Design: Managing carbon price risk in a low-carbon industry" (Joule, 2025, co-authored with A. Hoogsteyn and K. Bruninx), "Managing connection queues in distribution networks with flexible connection agreements" (Applied Energy, 396, 2025, co-authored with F. De Santi et al.), "Value-oriented price forecasting for arbitrage strategies of Energy Storage Systems through loss function tuning" (Energy, 333, 2025, co-authored with R. Smets et al.), and "A multi-objective optimization model to balance costs and land use in power system expansion planning" (Sustainable Design and Manufacturing 2024, 2025). Delarue supervises multiple PhD projects on energy systems modeling, teaches courses like Electricity and Gas Markets, New Energy Technologies, and Renewable Energy, and coordinates master's theses in energy programs.