Ideally students starting in SESAM have a background covering (renewable) energy and power systems, microeconomics, operations research, computer programming and a whole bunch of relevant methodological and engineering courses. (See admission requirements and recommended prerequisite knowledge on the external SESAM site). Many students lack some backgrounds. Especially for Operations Research, but also for other topics, this can pose challenges.
For students interested to come better prepared to classes, this section provides some study material.