Phasing in Large-scale Expansion of Wind-Power in the Nordic-Countries

There are plans of a substantial increase in the construction of renewable power in Scandinavia in the coming 10 years. The Nordic countries operate a common wholesale market, Nord Pool. Intermittent power (wind power, solar and small-scale hydro power) is stochastic and therefore needs other generating technologies to undertake the necessary adjustment of supply in order to keep up the continuous balance between demand and supply. There are several generating technologies in use in the Nordic countries; hydropower, conventional thermal, nuclear power, combined heat and power based on oil, coal and biofuel, and intermittent power, mainly wind power and run-of-the-river small scale hydro. Interesting questions are which technologies will counter the swings in intermittent power, and the consequences for the price of electricity as to variability. The purpose of the paper is to investigate these questions by using a theoretic dynamic model covering the main technologies used for generating electricity in the Nordic area in order to give qualitative conclusions about the interactions between the technologies and price impacts. A certain amount of intermittent power will be assumed, and then consequences of changes in intermittent power will be studied.