Industrial demand-side flexibility: A key element of a just energy transition and industrial development

Heffron, Raphael J.; Körner, Marc-Fabian; Wagner, Jon; Weibelzahl, Martin; Fridgen, Gilbert

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115026

Cited by 140 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…Hence, research and practice intensively consider different possibilities to tackle challenges related to RES' intermittency: Among others, corresponding flexibility technologies comprise batteries, sector-coupling, grid expansion, and demand response (Heffron et al 2020;Lannoye et al 2015). Furthermore, research in the field of energy economics already discusses the approach of a local integration, i.e., the possibility to supply local flexibility by converting excess electricity on-site into goods, e.g., hydrogen, that may be stored or then sold on other nonelectricity markets (Glenk and Reichelstein 2019;Hosseini and Wahid 2016).…”

Section: Supplementary Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not All Doom and Gloom: How Energy-Intensive and Temporally Flexible Data Center Applications May Actually Promote Renewable Energy Sources

et al. 2021

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To achieve a sustainable energy system, a further increase in electricity generation from renewable energy sources (RES) is imperative. However, the development and implementation of RES entail various challenges, e.g., dealing with grid stability issues due to RES’ intermittency. Correspondingly, increasingly volatile and even negative electricity prices question the economic viability of RES-plants. To address these challenges, this paper analyzes how the integration of an RES-plant and a computationally intensive, energy-consuming data center (DC) can promote investments in RES-plants. An optimization model is developed that calculates the net present value (NPV) of an integrated energy system (IES) comprising an RES-plant and a DC, where the DC may directly consume electricity from the RES-plant. To gain applicable knowledge, this paper evaluates the developed model by means of two use-cases with real-world data, namely AWS computing instances for training Machine Learning algorithms and Bitcoin mining as relevant DC applications. The results illustrate that for both cases the NPV of the IES compared to a stand-alone RES-plant increases, which may lead to a promotion of RES-plants. The evaluation also finds that the IES may be able to provide significant energy flexibility that can be used to stabilize the electricity grid. Finally, the IES may also help to reduce the carbon-footprint of new energy-intensive DC applications by directly consuming electricity from RES-plants.

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Section: Supplementary Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not All Doom and Gloom: How Energy-Intensive and Temporally Flexible Data Center Applications May Actually Promote Renewable Energy Sources

et al. 2021

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“…For example, increasingly data is used to ensure more flexibility is utilised in the electricity system. 103 Further, data is being utilised with artificial intelligence (AI) to capture consumer usage in terms of electricity consumption and energy storage technology, to increase consumer efficiency and reduce personal energy intensity. As technology grows around AI and battery storage technology, this style of data management will ensure that low-carbon energy becomes even more of a viable and competitive source of energy than conventional energy.…”

Section: Rise In Imagery and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

The identification and impact of justice risks to commercial risks in the energy sector: post COVID-19 and for the energy transition

Heffron

Connor²,

Crossley

et al. 2021

Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law

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The energy sector faces many challenges today, in particular from the current health (COVID-19) and resulting financial crises. However, a significant number of challenges existed prior to the outbreak of COVID-19. The approach here is to align academic and practitioner legal research and illuminate for the business world from a legal perspective what the key commercial risks are for the energy sector in the years ahead. A further aim of this article is to demonstrate to interdisciplinary energy researchers how these commercial risks can influence energy activity and decision-making across the world at local, national and international levels. Often those in science or social science do not realise the vital role law plays in reducing or increasing the risk profile of energy activity. And that, in essence, is what this article aims to address: the knowledge gap around law and risk and how interdisciplinary scholars should understand the issue of commercial risk in the energy sector. This article identifies how commercial risk for the energy sector will change due to what can be classed as 'justice risks'. Resolving these justice risks will be necessary over the lifetime of a project from planning through construction, operation and decommissioning phases. For all stakeholders in the energy sector it is vital that there is a recovery and that new energy projects are built and that they contribute to a country's 2030 energy and climate goals. As the world faces the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19, financial and energy-climate crises, ensuring engagement with justice risks can provide a pathway forward to ensure investors commit to investment. Energy, a key sector in the global economy, will be affected but at the same time can enable economic recovery. It can be stated, therefore, that energy has a dual naturerather like the health sectorbeing part of the problem but also the solution to the current financial crises (ie the panacea).

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“…To mitigate the need for these costly short-term measures, electricity markets must account for available flexibilities already early on. Flexibilities can be provided through electricity generation or demand, storage technologies, transmission line expansions, or sector coupling (Heffron et al 2020). In order to trade flexibility, separate flexibility markets may be needed that complement wholesale electricity markets (Hirth and Schlecht 2019).…”

Section: Security Of Supplymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, markets are typically integrated into the broader market environment. For instance, the markets for different energy resources and services are influenced by numerous other markets whose transaction object is not energy but, for example, consumer goods, tourism, or labor (Heffron et al 2020). Further, the electricity market itself comprises several submarkets, for example sequential markets for the same final good such as forward markets and real-time markets for energy.…”

Section: Integration and Interconnectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Market Success: The Quest for the Objectives and Success Factors of Markets

et al. 2021

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Markets are an essential tool to coordinate complex systems. Engineering markets requires the consideration of numerous objectives and factors that will eventually determine the market’s success. These objectives and factors are frequently not well defined or elaborated. Hence, this chapter aims to support market design through a perspective on what determines market success. To this end, we review the literature, consider examples of market success and failure, and reflect on our ongoing work regarding future electricity market design. We provide a framework for market objectives and success factors with a focus on electricity markets. The framework could spur the identification of objectives and success factors of markets in other domains, and inform the engineering of future electricity markets.

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Industrial demand-side flexibility: A key element of a just energy transition and industrial development

Cited by 140 publications

References 65 publications

Not All Doom and Gloom: How Energy-Intensive and Temporally Flexible Data Center Applications May Actually Promote Renewable Energy Sources

Not All Doom and Gloom: How Energy-Intensive and Temporally Flexible Data Center Applications May Actually Promote Renewable Energy Sources

The identification and impact of justice risks to commercial risks in the energy sector: post COVID-19 and for the energy transition

Market Success: The Quest for the Objectives and Success Factors of Markets

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