Integrated solutions with partial equilibrium. Partial equilibrium models are well-equipped as part of a suite of integrated solutions to assess the distributional impacts of energy and climate policies. The focus of partial equilibrium models is on the techno-economic pathways, which can include linking to other models or applying the equity evaluation. As described in Section 4.1 and shown in Table 1, there are three variations to link models: coupling, soft-linking and hard-linking - each with its own advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of model linking methods is to retain a high level of detail in each of the separate models - similarly to disaggregation - and at the same time to maintain the flexibility of the different modeling frameworks. Retaining the positive aspects of the partial equilibrium framework to assess the long-term implications for energy transitions requires preserving the main method such that the soft-linking approach is most common. Xxxxxx et al.[110] applied the PRIMES model to quantify the impacts of the European “Clean Energy for all Europeans” package. The PRIMES model links a suite of detailed sector models, which although did not specifically aim to address distributional impacts, identifies specific challenges that not only impact the policy objectives but will have effects to consumers in terms of benefits and economic repercussions. Fell et al.[15] reviewed integrated ways to capture the distributional impacts of long-term transitions by linking a partial equilibrium model with a higher level of disaggregation in the household sector with a model specifically designed to evaluate distributional impacts. This mixed-methods approach, however, allows to identify potential areas in long-term policies that might be of concern with regard to distributional impacts. Xxx et al.[34] apply an equity evaluation as a means of linking information from different sources and models without changing the structure of each method. The linked model approach of partial equilibrium with other models, such as macroeconomic models, is a powerful tool that offers a unique insight through the combination of long-term energy and climate policy pathways in conjunction with a view on their potential distributional impacts on specific groups. Soft-linking allows each model to maintain its framework and strengths without the burden of increasing the computational time or the model complexity.
