Spatio-temporal effectiveness of flexibility options in improving variable renewable energy match with electricity demand

Expanding the scope of renewable energy integration to service growing electricity demand poses a considerable challenge for power balancing, especially given the greater variations and uncertainty effected by the low-carbon transition. These transformations underscore the significance of the appropriate and timely selection and deployment of flexibility resources in power system planning and operation. This study proposes an integrated optimization model to perform an effectiveness analysis of the flexibility configuration for improving variable renewable energy (VRE) matching with electricity demand in China's power sector from the spatial and temporal dimensions. The results illustrate that flexibility interventions can change the distribution and matching of variable renewable generation and electricity demand through generation adjustment, inter-regional allocation, energy conversion, and load shift. Diversified flexibility option combinations of dispatchable generation, inter-regional transmission, energy storage, and demand response are effective for increasing the fraction of electricity demand satisfied by VRE generation. Considering complementarity and substitutability between flexibility options, regional power systems are projected to experience distinct supply-demand match (SDM) changes because of disparities in resource endowment, system composition, flexibility potential, and renewable energy integration targets. Robust SDM increases can be realized by expanding local renewable energy generation and importing substantial amounts of renewable power from other regions.