Rate My Professor Erik Delarue

Erik Delarue is a Professor BOF in the Faculty of Engineering Science at KU Leuven, affiliated with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Division of Applied Mechanics and Energy Conversion (TME). He leads the Energy Systems Integration & Modeling research group, heads the Subdivision EnergyVille TME-Delarue, serves as Vice Director of the Coordinating Group at the KU Leuven Institute for Energy and Society (KIES), and is Head of the KIES General Division. Born in Leuven on October 17, 1982, he earned his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering specializing in Thermo-technical Energy Sciences in 2005 and his PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 2009, both from the KU Leuven Faculty of Engineering Science. After his PhD, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the European University Institute's Florence School of Regulation in Italy from December 2009 to December 2010. He then became a post-doctoral research fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) at KU Leuven starting in 2010, with visiting researcher positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2008 and 2014. In October 2015, he was appointed Assistant Professor (BOFZAP) at KU Leuven, advancing to his current professorial role.

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.