IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v205y2017icp1128-1140.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of high levels of solar generation on congestion in the European electricity transmission grid

Author

Listed:
  • Goop, Joel
  • Odenberger, Mikael
  • Johnsson, Filip

Abstract

The increasing levels of solar power affect the usage and development of electricity grids, both at local distribution level and with respect to potential congestion within the transmission grid. We use a cost-minimising investment model (ELIN) to determine the development of the European electricity generation system up to Year 2050, for two renewable-dominated scenarios: the Green Base scenario, with a Europe-wide, technology-neutral renewable certificate scheme; and the Net Metering scenario, with an additional net metering support scheme for solar power. The system compositions are extracted from the ELIN results for the years 2022 and 2032, and analysed in an hourly dispatch model (EPOD) to study the effects of solar power on marginal electricity costs and transmission congestion. From the results of the investment model, it is clear that the presence of a net metering subsidy scheme significantly affects both the pace at which solar power continues to expand and the geographical distribution of the new capacity. In the dispatch modelling, it can be seen that high penetration levels of solar power have a strong effect on the marginal costs of electricity, since production is concentrated around a few hours each day. At penetration levels of 20–30% of annual electricity demand, solar power production entails a predictable daily marginal cost difference between the solar peak and the evening price peak, which could make short-term storage competitive. Transmission congestion during summer is consistently higher in the systems from the Net Metering scenario than in those from the Green Base scenario, while the opposite is true during winter. Solar power production correlates strongly with congestion 6–9h after the solar peak, whereas wind power correlates with congestion with respect to more slowly evolving and longer-term variations.

Suggested Citation

  • Goop, Joel & Odenberger, Mikael & Johnsson, Filip, 2017. "The effect of high levels of solar generation on congestion in the European electricity transmission grid," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 1128-1140.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:205:y:2017:i:c:p:1128-1140
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.08.143
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261917311601
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.08.143?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pietzcker, Robert Carl & Stetter, Daniel & Manger, Susanne & Luderer, Gunnar, 2014. "Using the sun to decarbonize the power sector: The economic potential of photovoltaics and concentrating solar power," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 704-720.
    2. Kjarstad, Jan & Johnsson, Filip, 2007. "The European power plant infrastructure--Presentation of the Chalmers energy infrastructure database with applications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 3643-3664, July.
    3. Heide, Dominik & von Bremen, Lueder & Greiner, Martin & Hoffmann, Clemens & Speckmann, Markus & Bofinger, Stefan, 2010. "Seasonal optimal mix of wind and solar power in a future, highly renewable Europe," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 2483-2489.
    4. Schaber, Katrin & Steinke, Florian & Hamacher, Thomas, 2012. "Transmission grid extensions for the integration of variable renewable energies in Europe: Who benefits where?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 123-135.
    5. Becker, S. & Rodriguez, R.A. & Andresen, G.B. & Schramm, S. & Greiner, M., 2014. "Transmission grid extensions during the build-up of a fully renewable pan-European electricity supply," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 404-418.
    6. Björn Nykvist & Måns Nilsson, 2015. "Rapidly falling costs of battery packs for electric vehicles," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(4), pages 329-332, April.
    7. Ma, Tao & Østergaard, Poul Alberg & Lund, Henrik & Yang, Hongxing & Lu, Lin, 2014. "An energy system model for Hong Kong in 2020," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 301-310.
    8. Göransson, Lisa & Goop, Joel & Unger, Thomas & Odenberger, Mikael & Johnsson, Filip, 2014. "Linkages between demand-side management and congestion in the European electricity transmission system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 860-872.
    9. 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.
    10. Odenberger, M. & Unger, T. & Johnsson, F., 2009. "Pathways for the North European electricity supply," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1660-1677, May.
    11. Brancucci Martínez-Anido, C. & Vandenbergh, M. & de Vries, L. & Alecu, C. & Purvins, A. & Fulli, G. & Huld, T., 2013. "Medium-term demand for European cross-border electricity transmission capacity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 207-222.
    12. Steinke, Florian & Wolfrum, Philipp & Hoffmann, Clemens, 2013. "Grid vs. storage in a 100% renewable Europe," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 826-832.
    13. Schaber, Katrin & Steinke, Florian & Mühlich, Pascal & Hamacher, Thomas, 2012. "Parametric study of variable renewable energy integration in Europe: Advantages and costs of transmission grid extensions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 498-508.
    14. Bird, Lori & Lew, Debra & Milligan, Michael & Carlini, E. Maria & Estanqueiro, Ana & Flynn, Damian & Gomez-Lazaro, Emilio & Holttinen, Hannele & Menemenlis, Nickie & Orths, Antje & Eriksen, Peter Børr, 2016. "Wind and solar energy curtailment: A review of international experience," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 577-586.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Taljegard, M. & Göransson, L. & Odenberger, M. & Johnsson, F., 2019. "Impacts of electric vehicles on the electricity generation portfolio – A Scandinavian-German case study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C), pages 1637-1650.
    2. Evangelos S. Chatzistylianos & Georgios N. Psarros & Stavros A. Papathanassiou, 2024. "Export Constraints Applicable to Renewable Generation to Enhance Grid Hosting Capacity," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-30, May.
    3. Maria Taljegard & Lisa Göransson & Mikael Odenberger & Filip Johnsson, 2019. "Electric Vehicles as Flexibility Management Strategy for the Electricity System—A Comparison between Different Regions of Europe," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-19, July.
    4. Saez, Yago & Mochon, Asuncion & Corona, Luis & Isasi, Pedro, 2019. "Integration in the European electricity market: A machine learning-based convergence analysis for the Central Western Europe region," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 549-566.
    5. Lange, Andreas & Ross, Johannes, 2024. "Internalizing match-dependent externalities," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 356-378.
    6. Xu, Xu & Li, Jiayong & Xu, Zhao & Zhao, Jian & Lai, Chun Sing, 2019. "Enhancing photovoltaic hosting capacity—A stochastic approach to optimal planning of static var compensator devices in distribution networks," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 952-962.
    7. Marco Pellegrini & Augusto Bianchini, 2018. "The Innovative Concept of Cold District Heating Networks: A Literature Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, January.
    8. Backer, Martijn & Keles, Dogan & Kraft, Emil, 2023. "The economic impacts of integrating European balancing markets: The case of the newly installed aFRR energy market-coupling platform PICASSO," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    9. Alassi, Abdulrahman & Bañales, Santiago & Ellabban, Omar & Adam, Grain & MacIver, Callum, 2019. "HVDC Transmission: Technology Review, Market Trends and Future Outlook," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 530-554.
    10. Luis Gautier & Mahelet G. Fikru, 2024. "Electric Utility Mergers in the Presence of Distributed Renewable Energy," Natural Resource Management and Policy, in: Handbook of Merger Control and Environmental Policy, chapter 0, pages 63-92, Springer.
    11. Badakhshan, Sobhan & Hajibandeh, Neda & Shafie-khah, Miadreza & Catalão, João.P.S., 2019. "Impact of solar energy on the integrated operation of electricity-gas grids," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 844-853.
    12. Luca Lena Jansen & Georg Thomaßen & Georgios Antonopoulos & Ľuboš Buzna, 2022. "An Efficient Framework to Estimate the State of Charge Profiles of Hydro Units for Large-Scale Zonal and Nodal Pricing Models," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-23, June.
    13. Bauknecht, Dierk & Funcke, Simon & Vogel, Moritz, 2020. "Is small beautiful? A framework for assessing decentralised electricity systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    14. Chu, Yin & Gao, Juanxia & Li, Haoyang, 2023. "Wind power expansion and regional allocative efficiency among fossil-fuel electricity generators," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    15. Macedo, Daniela Pereira & Marques, António Cardoso & Damette, Olivier, 2022. "The role of electricity flows and renewable electricity production in the behaviour of electricity prices in Spain," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 885-900.
    16. Janko, Samantha A. & Johnson, Nathan G., 2018. "Scalable multi-agent microgrid negotiations for a transactive energy market," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 715-727.
    17. He, Hongjie & Du, Ershun & Zhang, Ning & Kang, Chongqing & Wang, Xuebin, 2021. "Enhancing the power grid flexibility with battery energy storage transportation and transmission switching," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    18. Zhou, Bo & Ai, Xiaomeng & Fang, Jiakun & Yao, Wei & Zuo, Wenping & Chen, Zhe & Wen, Jinyu, 2019. "Data-adaptive robust unit commitment in the hybrid AC/DC power system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    19. Arcia-Garibaldi, Guadalupe & Cruz-Romero, Pedro & Gómez-Expósito, Antonio, 2018. "Future power transmission: Visions, technologies and challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 285-301.
    20. Poplavskaya, Ksenia & Totschnig, Gerhard & Leimgruber, Fabian & Doorman, Gerard & Etienne, Gilles & de Vries, Laurens, 2020. "Integration of day-ahead market and redispatch to increase cross-border exchanges in the European electricity market," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    21. Goop, Joel & Nyholm, Emil & Odenberger, Mikael & Johnsson, Filip, 2021. "Impact of electricity market feedback on investments in solar photovoltaic and battery systems in Swedish single-family dwellings," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 1078-1091.

    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. Zack Norwood & Joel Goop & Mikael Odenberger, 2017. "The Future of the European Electricity Grid Is Bright: Cost Minimizing Optimization Shows Solar with Storage as Dominant Technologies to Meet European Emissions Targets to 2050," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-31, December.
    2. Child, Michael & Kemfert, Claudia & Bogdanov, Dmitrii & Breyer, Christian, 2019. "Flexible electricity generation, grid exchange and storage for the transition to a 100% renewable energy system in Europe," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 139, pages 80-101.
    3. Chloi Syranidou & Jochen Linssen & Detlef Stolten & Martin Robinius, 2020. "Integration of Large-Scale Variable Renewable Energy Sources into the Future European Power System: On the Curtailment Challenge," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-23, October.
    4. Mads Raunbak & Timo Zeyer & Kun Zhu & Martin Greiner, 2017. "Principal Mismatch Patterns Across a Simplified Highly Renewable European Electricity Network," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-13, November.
    5. Scholz, Yvonne & Gils, Hans Christian & Pietzcker, Robert C., 2017. "Application of a high-detail energy system model to derive power sector characteristics at high wind and solar shares," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 568-582.
    6. Pietzcker, Robert C. & Ueckerdt, Falko & Carrara, Samuel & de Boer, Harmen Sytze & Després, Jacques & Fujimori, Shinichiro & Johnson, Nils & Kitous, Alban & Scholz, Yvonne & Sullivan, Patrick & Ludere, 2017. "System integration of wind and solar power in integrated assessment models: A cross-model evaluation of new approaches," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 583-599.
    7. Goop, Joel & Nyholm, Emil & Odenberger, Mikael & Johnsson, Filip, 2021. "Impact of electricity market feedback on investments in solar photovoltaic and battery systems in Swedish single-family dwellings," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 1078-1091.
    8. Hahn, Henning & Krautkremer, Bernd & Hartmann, Kilian & Wachendorf, Michael, 2014. "Review of concepts for a demand-driven biogas supply for flexible power generation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 383-393.
    9. Huber, Matthias & Dimkova, Desislava & Hamacher, Thomas, 2014. "Integration of wind and solar power in Europe: Assessment of flexibility requirements," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 236-246.
    10. Rodriguez, Rolando A. & Becker, Sarah & Greiner, Martin, 2015. "Cost-optimal design of a simplified, highly renewable pan-European electricity system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 658-668.
    11. Rodríguez, Rolando A. & Becker, Sarah & Andresen, Gorm B. & Heide, Dominik & Greiner, Martin, 2014. "Transmission needs across a fully renewable European power system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 467-476.
    12. Reichenberg, Lina & Hedenus, Fredrik & Odenberger, Mikael & Johnsson, Filip, 2018. "The marginal system LCOE of variable renewables – Evaluating high penetration levels of wind and solar in Europe," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 914-924.
    13. Chattopadhyay, Kabitri & Kies, Alexander & Lorenz, Elke & von Bremen, Lüder & Heinemann, Detlev, 2017. "The impact of different PV module configurations on storage and additional balancing needs for a fully renewable European power system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 176-189.
    14. Schmid, Eva & Knopf, Brigitte, 2015. "Quantifying the long-term economic benefits of European electricity system integration," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 260-269.
    15. Weitemeyer, Stefan & Kleinhans, David & Vogt, Thomas & Agert, Carsten, 2015. "Integration of Renewable Energy Sources in future power systems: The role of storage," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 14-20.
    16. Ueckerdt, Falko & Pietzcker, Robert & Scholz, Yvonne & Stetter, Daniel & Giannousakis, Anastasis & Luderer, Gunnar, 2017. "Decarbonizing global power supply under region-specific consideration of challenges and options of integrating variable renewables in the REMIND model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 665-684.
    17. Gawlick, Julia & Hamacher, Thomas, 2023. "Impact of coupling the electricity and hydrogen sector in a zero-emission European energy system in 2050," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    18. Gábor Pintér & Henrik Zsiborács & Nóra Hegedűsné Baranyai, 2022. "Aspects of Determining the Energy Storage System Size Linked to Household-Sized Power Plants in Hungary in Accordance with the Regulatory Needs of the Electric Energy System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-19, February.
    19. Schlachtberger, D.P. & Brown, T. & Schramm, S. & Greiner, M., 2017. "The benefits of cooperation in a highly renewable European electricity network," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 469-481.
    20. Schlachtberger, D.P. & Brown, T. & Schäfer, M. & Schramm, S. & Greiner, M., 2018. "Cost optimal scenarios of a future highly renewable European electricity system: Exploring the influence of weather data, cost parameters and policy constraints," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 100-114.

    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:eee:appene:v:205:y:2017:i:c:p:1128-1140. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    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.