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The spatial dimension of the power system: Investigating hot spots of Smart Renewable Power Provision

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  • Rauner, Sebastian
  • Eichhorn, Marcus
  • Thrän, Daniela

Abstract

The spatial dimension of the transition to a decarbonized power system becomes increasingly apparent with more than 1.5million renewable energy sources of electricity (RESE) plants operating all over Germany. The information regarding the spatial distribution of RES-E generation and power demand is still divers and not yet systematically used for the strategic planning of the energy transition and energy system modelling. The objective of this study is therefore to analyse the current power demand and RES-E supply spatially highly explicit with regard to their local interplay, annual balances and the share of volatile to flexible RES-E. This is achieved through the development and implementation of a general framework to analyse spatial patterns of the power system at different scales. The area of study is the Federal State of Germany, with the assessment of different spatial resolution ranging from federal state to community level. The resulting patterns are evaluated for their statistical significance through a hot spot analysis, followed by a correlation analysis to find possible reasons for their formation. The study shows a spatial dissonance between power demand and RES-E supply. This suggests that the design of the policy framework, focused on the levelized cost of electricity, led to a spatial distribution not oriented on local power demand but rather on economic optimality for the single power plant owner. By additionally differentiating between the RES-E technologies in terms of their intermittency characteristics, conclusions on the ability of regions at different scales for Smart Renewable Power Provision are drawn, measured by a set of proposed low carbon indicators. The spatially most detailed level reveals the diverse state of the regions with, on the one hand, already around 10% fulfilling the indicator limit of Smart Renewable Power Provision and, on the other hand, regions with no RES-E capacity installed. An algorithm for finding desirable trajectory pathways to a decentralized energy system is introduced, build on the knowledge of the current state of the local power system. Finally, the correlation analysis indicates that for the RES-E extension not only socioeconomic but also land use characteristics are important factors to consider.

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  • Rauner, Sebastian & Eichhorn, Marcus & Thrän, Daniela, 2016. "The spatial dimension of the power system: Investigating hot spots of Smart Renewable Power Provision," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 1038-1050.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:184:y:2016:i:c:p:1038-1050
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.07.031
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