No abstract

No abstract

High spatial and temporal resolution optimal power flow simulations of the 2013 and 2020 interconnected grid in Central Western Europe and Central Eastern Europe regions are undertaken to assess the impact of an increased penetration of renewables. In contrast to prior studies, the present work models the individual transmission lines and power plants within the two regions. It is shown that the planned 2020 developments of the AC grid reduce the mean loading of the grid from 34% to 24%. Most impacted are north-south lines in Germany. The planned developments of HVDC lines further reduce the loading on the AC grid to 22%, as the HVDC lines provide a low-loss transmission solution for the abundant wind energy in northern Germany. Physical loop flows in central Europe increase by 15% for planned 2020 penetration levels of renewables; however these loop flows are reduced by 15% with addition of German HVDC lines.

Summary The European Union supports the promotion of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) to decarbonize the transportation sector. This requires the intrinsic CO2 emissions of BEVs, defined as CO2 emissions from power plants producing the electricity to charge the BEVs, to be lower than the emissions of gasoline cars. To identify the individual power plants producing the electricity to charge the BEVs, a novel georeferenced optimal power flow simulation framework, which models power plants and transmission lines individually, is used in this work. The real central European power system is simulated at hourly resolution for the year 2030. A new model for BEVs, which considers the BEV owner's varying willingness to participate in the electricity market, is implemented into the framework. Simulation results show that there is limited potential for BEVs to reduce the curtailment of solar power (23% reduction of curtailment) and wind power (10% reduction). Instead of renewables, 65% of the electricity used to charge BEVs is produced by conventional power plants such as gas and coal power plants. Consequently, the intrinsic CO2 emissions of BEVs are found to be up to 25% higher than those of gasoline cars. An increase of CO2 prices to 100 €/tCO2 is found to be necessary for BEVs to have intrinsic CO2 emissions comparable to gasoline cars. These findings show that the decarbonization of personal transport requires more efforts that simply promote the sales of electric vehicles. Additional strategies such as increased CO2 prices, which transform the electricity sector from coal to gas and biomass, are required to enable an environmentally friendly implementation of BEVs.

No abstract