IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/vfsc13/79944.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Flexibility in Europe's power sector - an additional requirement or an automatic complement?

Author

Listed:
  • Bertsch, Joachim
  • Growitsch, Christian
  • Lorenczik, Stefan
  • Nagl, Stephan

Abstract

The EU member states have declared to strongly increase the share of Renewable Energy Sources in the next decades. Given a large deployment of wind and solar capacities as well as limited cost-efficient storage technologies, this has two major impacts on electricity systems. First, the electricity system has to be flexible enough to cope with the volatile RES-E generation i.e. ramp up supply or ramp down demand on short notice. Second, sufficient back-up capacities are needed for times with low feed-in from wind and solar capacities. The provision of both back-up capacity has been intensively discussed in the previous literature of recent years (for instance Cramton and Stoft, 2008 and Joskow, 2008). In addition, Lamadrid et al (2011) argue that with increasing volatility, incentives to invest in flexible resources should be implemented in market design. However, they did not have a look at the dynamic view in an integrated analysis necessary to to answer the questions of how an electricity system can adapt to an increasing share of renewables. This paper therefore analyses the flexibility requirements of the future European electricity system and the policy implications for market design with a system-economic dynamic approach. For this purpose, we simulate the development of the European electricity markets up to 2050 by using a linear investment and dispatch optimization model. Flexibility requirements are implemented in the model via constraints for ramping and provision of balancing power. We find that although an increase of fluctuating renewables has a tremendous impact on volatility and therefore flexibility requirements, the main trigger for investments into flexible conventional capacity are the achievable full load hours rather than ramping capabilities. Therefore any market design with investment incentives of achievable full load hours does not need additional incentives for flexibility.

Suggested Citation

  • Bertsch, Joachim & Growitsch, Christian & Lorenczik, Stefan & Nagl, Stephan, 2013. "Flexibility in Europe's power sector - an additional requirement or an automatic complement?," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79944, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc13:79944
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/79944/1/VfS_2013_pid_852.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nagl, Stephan & Fürsch, Michaela & Jägemann, Cosima & Bettzüge, Marc Oliver, 2011. "The economic value of storage in renewable power systems - the case of thermal energy storage in concentrating solar plants," EWI Working Papers 2011-8, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    2. Nicolosi, S., 2010. "Wind power integration, negative prices and power system flexibility - An empirical analysis of extreme events in Germany," MPRA Paper 31834, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. De Jonghe, Cedric & Delarue, Erik & Belmans, Ronnie & D'haeseleer, William, 2011. "Determining optimal electricity technology mix with high level of wind power penetration," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(6), pages 2231-2238, June.
    4. Richter, Jan, 2011. "DIMENSION - A Dispatch and Investment Model for European Electricity Markets," EWI Working Papers 2011-3, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    5. Matthias Finkenrath, 2011. "Cost and Performance of Carbon Dioxide Capture from Power Generation," IEA Energy Papers 2011/5, OECD Publishing.
    6. Cramton, Peter & Stoft, Steven, 2008. "Forward reliability markets: Less risk, less market power, more efficiency," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 194-201, September.
    7. Nicolosi, Marco, 2010. "Wind power integration and power system flexibility-An empirical analysis of extreme events in Germany under the new negative price regime," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 7257-7268, November.
    8. Fürsch, Michaela & Hagspiel, Simeon & Jägemann, Cosima & Nagl, Stephan & Lindenberger, Dietmar & Tröster, Eckehard, 2013. "The role of grid extensions in a cost-efficient transformation of the European electricity system until 2050," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 642-652.
    9. Joskow, Paul L., 2008. "Capacity payments in imperfect electricity markets: Need and design," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 159-170, September.
    10. Denholm, Paul & Hand, Maureen, 2011. "Grid flexibility and storage required to achieve very high penetration of variable renewable electricity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1817-1830, March.
    11. Jägemann, Cosima, 2012. "Decarbonizing Europe’s power sector by 2050 - Analyzing the implications of alternative decarbonization pathways," EWI Working Papers 2012-13, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    12. Jägemann, Cosima & Fürsch, Michaela & Hagspiel, Simeon & Nagl, Stephan, 2013. "Decarbonizing Europe's power sector by 2050 — Analyzing the economic implications of alternative decarbonization pathways," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 622-636.
    13. Möst, Dominik & Fichtner, Wolf, 2010. "Renewable energy sources in European energy supply and interactions with emission trading," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 2898-2910, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gerbaulet, Clemens & von Hirschhausen, Christian & Kemfert, Claudia & Lorenz, Casimir & Oei, Pao-Yu, 2019. "European electricity sector decarbonization under different levels of foresight," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 141, pages 973-987.
    2. Fürsch, Michaela & Lindenberger, Dietmar, 2013. "Promotion of Electricity from Renewable Energy in Europe post 2020 - the Economic Benefits of Cooperation," EWI Working Papers 2013-16, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    3. Jägemann, Cosima, 2014. "A note on the inefficiency of technology- and region-specific renewable energy support - The German case," EWI Working Papers 2014-5, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    4. Jägemann, Cosima & Hagspiel, Simeon & Lindenberger, Dietmar, 2013. "The Economic Inefficiency of Grid Parity: The Case of German Photovoltaics," EWI Working Papers 2013-19, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    5. repec:diw:diwwpp:dp1457 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Bublitz, Andreas & Keles, Dogan & Zimmermann, Florian & Fraunholz, Christoph & Fichtner, Wolf, 2018. "A survey on electricity market design: Insights from theory and real-world implementations of capacity remuneration mechanisms," Working Paper Series in Production and Energy 27, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute for Industrial Production (IIP).
    7. Zerrahn, Alexander & Schill, Wolf-Peter, 2017. "Long-run power storage requirements for high shares of renewables: review and a new model," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1518-1534.
    8. Bublitz, Andreas & Keles, Dogan & Zimmermann, Florian & Fraunholz, Christoph & Fichtner, Wolf, 2019. "A survey on electricity market design: Insights from theory and real-world implementations of capacity remuneration mechanisms," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1059-1078.
    9. Clemens Gerbaulet & Casimir Lorenz, 2017. "dynELMOD: A Dynamic Investment and Dispatch Model for the Future European Electricity Market," Data Documentation 88, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    10. Bertsch, Joachim & Brown, Tom & Hagspiel, Simeon & Just, Lisa, 2016. "The relevance of grid expansion under zonal markets," EWI Working Papers 2015-7, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    11. Jean-Michel Glachant & Arthur Henriot, 2013. "Melting-pots and salad bowls: the current debate on electricity market design for RES integration," Working Papers EPRG 1329, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    12. Bertsch, Joachim & Hagspiel, Simeon & Just, Lisa, 2016. "Congestion management in power systems - Long-term modeling framework and large-scale application," EWI Working Papers 2015-3, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    13. Boßmann, Tobias & Eser, Eike Johannes, 2016. "Model-based assessment of demand-response measures—A comprehensive literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1637-1656.
    14. Joachim Bertsch & Simeon Hagspiel & Lisa Just, 2016. "Congestion management in power systems," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 290-327, December.
    15. Helgeson, Broghan & Peter, Jakob, 2020. "The role of electricity in decarbonizing European road transport – Development and assessment of an integrated multi-sectoral model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    16. Vanegas Cantarero, María Mercedes, 2018. "Reviewing the Nicaraguan transition to a renewable energy system: Why is “business-as-usual” no longer an option?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 580-592.
    17. McDonagh, Shane & Deane, Paul & Rajendran, Karthik & Murphy, Jerry D., 2019. "Are electrofuels a sustainable transport fuel? Analysis of the effect of controls on carbon, curtailment, and cost of hydrogen," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 247(C), pages 716-730.
    18. Hagspiel, S. & Jägemann, C. & Lindenberger, D. & Brown, T. & Cherevatskiy, S. & Tröster, E., 2014. "Cost-optimal power system extension under flow-based market coupling," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 654-666.
    19. Unteutsch, Michaela, 2014. "Who Benefits from Cooperation? - A Numerical Analysis of Redistribution Effects Resulting from Cooperation in European RES-E Support," EWI Working Papers 2014-2, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    20. Garvey, S.D. & Eames, P.C. & Wang, J.H. & Pimm, A.J. & Waterson, M. & MacKay, R.S. & Giulietti, M. & Flatley, L.C. & Thomson, M. & Barton, J. & Evans, D.J. & Busby, J. & Garvey, J.E., 2015. "On generation-integrated energy storage," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 544-551.
    21. Laurent Pagnier & Philippe Jacquod, 2017. "How fast can one overcome the paradox of the energy transition? A physico-economic model for the European power grid," Papers 1706.00330, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2018.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
    • C63 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computational Techniques
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc13:79944. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfsocea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.