Optimally allocating renewable generation in Ireland: a long-term outlook until 2050. ESRI Research Bulletin, 2018/03

The Irish energy white paper released in December 2015 states the objective of diversifying electricity generation from renewable energy sources (RES-E). While onshore wind is planned to continue to make a significant contribution, the question arises which roles other RES-E technologies, such as solar PV, wind offshore or bioenergy, will play in the future. Moreover, the Irish 2030 target for RES-E is about to be set. Since the electricity demand growth in future is uncertain and the national target is yet unknown, this creates a high uncertainty around the overall amount of RES-E required. In this uncertain context, this research seeks to provide support for 1. achieving the national RES-E target determined as percentage share of energy demand in a cost minimal way under consideration of different diversification approaches, and 2. long-term planning of the electricity system by providing insight into the future regional distribution of generation and demand under different scenarios

Impacts of electric vehicles on the European high and extra high voltage power grid

The impact of electric vehicles on the electricity grid has been focused on by the literature in many facets, comprising considerations of the electricity system of a single household up to the highest voltage grid level. But each of these analyses is focusing on a single grid level. While the impact on the local level depends strongly on the specific environment and is consequently diverse, there is strong evidence that the impact on the highest grid level is non-critical. So far, there is no study considering several voltage levels together. Consequently, we analyzed here for the first time all voltage levels between 60 and 380 kV together for the European transmission grid and included, besides the load flexibilities from home charging, also the load from fast charging stations for the year 2050 with a completely replaced car fleet by electric vehicles. While the impact on the security of supply is rather marginal, with a slight increase of load shedding on some distribution grid nodes, the impact on nodal prices and greenhouse gas emission is—with up to 9%—more severe. When applying the model on the highest grid level alone, our results show significantly smaller impacts. These results endorse our comprehensive approach, which considers several grid levels and their comprehensive interactions—an isolated consideration of grid levels seems inappropriate for our research questions

Highly resolved optimal renewable allocation planning in power systems under consideration of dynamic grid topology

The system integration of an increasing amount of electricity generation from decentralised renewable energy sources (RES-E) is a major challenge for the transition of the European power system. The feed-in profiles and the potential of RES-E vary along the geographical and temporal dimension and are also subject to technological choices and changes. To support power system planning in the context of RES-E expansion and allocation planning required for meeting RES-E targets, analyses are needed assessing where and which RES-E capacities are likely to be expanded. This requires models that are able to consider the power grid capacity and topology including their changes over time. We therefore developed a model that meets these requirements and considers the assignment of RES-E potentials to grid nodes as variable. This is a major advancement in comparison to existing approaches based on a fixed and pre-defined assignment of RES-E potentials to a node. While our model is generic and includes data for all of Europe, we demonstrate the model in the context of a case study in the Republic of Ireland. We find wind onshore to be the dominating RES-E technology from a cost-efficient perspective. Since spatial wind onshore potentials are highest in the West and North of the country, this leads to a high capacity concentration in these areas. Should policy makers wish to diversify the RES-E portfolio, we find that a diversification mainly based on bioenergy and wind offshore is achievable at a moderate cost increase. Including solar photovoltaics into the portfolio, particularly rooftop installations, however, leads to a significant cost increase but also to a more scattered capacity installation over the country

Highly resolved optimal renewable allocation planning in power systems under consideration of dynamic grid topology

The system integration of an increasing amount of electricity generation from decentralised renewable energy sources (RES-E) is a major challenge for the transition of the European power system. The feed-in profiles and the potential of RES-E vary along the geographical and temporal dimension and are also subject to technological choices and changes. To support power system planning in the context of RES-E expansion and allocation planning required for meeting RES-E targets, analyses are needed assessing where and which RES-E capacities are likely to be expanded. This requires models that are able to consider the power grid capacity and topology including their changes over time. We therefore developed a model that meets these requirements and considers the assignment of RES-E potentials to grid nodes as variable. This is a major advancement in comparison to existing approaches based on a fixed and pre-defined assignment of RES-E potentials to a node. While our model is generic and includes data for all of Europe, we demonstrate the model in the context of a case study in the Republic of Ireland. We find wind onshore to be the dominating RES-E technology from a cost-efficient perspective. Since spatial wind onshore potentials are highest in the West and North of the country, this leads to a high capacity concentration in these areas. Should policy makers wish to diversify the RES-E portfolio, we find that a diversification mainly based on bioenergy and wind offshore is achievable at a moderate cost increase. Including solar photovoltaics into the portfolio, particularly rooftop installations, however, leads to a significant cost increase but also to a more scattered capacity installation over the country

Dekarbonisierung des Energiesystems durch verstärkten Einsatz erneuerbaren Stroms im Wärme-, Verkehrs- und Industriesektor bei gleichzeitigen Stilllegungen von Kraftwerken – Auswirkungen auf die Versorgungssicherheit in Süddeutschland

Der Umbau der Energieversorgung zu einem von erneuerbaren Energien dominierten Energiesystem stellt die Versorgungssicherheit im Stromsektor vor neuen Herausforderungen. Zur Analyse der Versorgungssicherheit wird daher ein Modellkonzept entwickelt und angewendet, das sowohl die Untersuchung der Entwicklung der Stromnachfrage als auch die der optimalen Erzeugungstechnologien unter Berücksichtigung technischer, ökonomischer und klimapolitischer Restriktionen gestattet

Impacts of electric vehicles on the European high and extra high voltage power grid

The impact of electric vehicles on the electricity grid has been focused on by the literature in many facets, comprising considerations of the electricity system of a single household up to the highest voltage grid level. But each of these analyses is focusing on a single grid level. While the impact on the local level depends strongly on the specific environment and is consequently diverse, there is strong evidence that the impact on the highest grid level is non-critical. So far, there is no study considering several voltage levels together. Consequently, we analyzed here for the first time all voltage levels between 60 and 380 kV together for the European transmission grid and included, besides the load flexibilities from home charging, also the load from fast charging stations for the year 2050 with a completely replaced car fleet by electric vehicles. While the impact on the security of supply is rather marginal, with a slight increase of load shedding on some distribution grid nodes, the impact on nodal prices and greenhouse gas emission is - with up to 9% - more severe. When applying the model on the highest grid level alone, our results show significantly smaller impacts. These results endorse our comprehensive approach, which considers several grid levels and their comprehensive interactions - an isolated consideration of grid levels seems inappropriate for our research questions