Recent results on the integration of variable renewable electric power into the US grid

Apt, Jay

doi:10.1557/mre.2015.7

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…For power systems with high shares of wind and solar, the appropriate temporal resolution will capture daily availability patterns and is likely to be less than a few hours. 9 The appropriate spatial resolution will typically be one for which it is possible to fully account for production, consumption, imports, and exports so that consumption-and production-related emissions can be computed.…”

Section: Different Tools To Measure the Impacts Of Our Energy Choicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why 100% Renewable Energy Is Not Enough

Chalendar

Benson

2019

Joule

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Section: Different Tools To Measure the Impacts Of Our Energy Choicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why 100% Renewable Energy Is Not Enough

Chalendar

Benson

2019

Joule

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“…However, in this study, we use hourly-average carbon intensities as the baseline rather than sub-hourly values, first because hourly grid data is more widely available than sub-hourly data, and second due to the relatively low variation in grid carbon intensity within a single hour. Previous studies note that the variability of wind and solar power, which contribute to the variability of grid carbon intensity, is much less at the hour or shorter timescale than it is across several hours or days [23]. We confirmed this by analyzing a dataset of 5 min resolution carbon emissions data published by the California independent system operator (ISO), finding that even in this renewable-heavy region, the mean coefficient of variation of grid carbon intensity within a single hour was only 2.4%, compared to 31% across the entire year.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hourly accounting of carbon emissions from electricity consumption

Miller

Novan

Jenn

2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Carbon accounting is important for quantifying the sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are driving climate change, and is increasingly being used to guide policy, investment, business, and regulatory decisions. The current practice for accounting emissions from consumed electricity, guided by standards like the GHG Protocol, uses annual-average grid emission factors, although previous studies have shown that grid carbon intensity varies across seasons and hours of the day. Previous case studies have shown that annual-average carbon accounting can bias emission inventories, but none have shown that this bias is substantial or widespread. This study addresses this gap by calculating emission inventories for thousands of residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural facilities across the U.S., and explores the magnitude and direction of this bias compared to hourly accounting of emissions. Our results show that annual-average accounting can over- or under-estimate carbon inventories as much as 35% in certain settings but result in effectively no bias in others. Bias will be greater in regions with high variation in carbon intensity, and for end-users with high variation in their electricity consumption across hours and seasons. As variation in carbon intensity continues to grow with growing shares of variable and intermittent renewable generation, these biases will only continue to worsen in the future. In most cases, using monthly-average emission factors does not substantially reduce bias compared to annual averages. Thus, the authors recommend that hourly accounting be adopted as the best practice for emissions inventories of consumed electricity.

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“…Large-scale deployment of low-carbon and renewable electricity is increasingly advocated as an effective decarbonization pathway for electricity systems. The variability of wind and solar electric power is a concern when they represent large fractions of the generation mix and is now better understood [4]. The integration costs for wind and solar will ultimately depend on how well conventional generators can adapt their operational strategies and respond to fluctuations in renewable output.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent results fromenergyand emissions tracking in the US electricity system

Jacques¹,

Chalendar²,

Benson³

2020

Preprint

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Electric sector emissions represent a large and growing fraction of anthropogenic emissions and should be a strong focus for environmental policy measures. In electric grids with significant penetrations of renewables, the emissions intensity of electricity varies in space and time. To encourage and guide decarbonization efforts, we need better tools to monitor the emissions embodied in electricity consumption, production and exchanges. Previous efforts resulted in a dataset for 2016 electricity and emissions at the hourly and balancing-area levels in the US electricity system. We now provide tools to make such datasets available much faster, by using an approximation for released emissions and an algorithm to automate data cleaning. As an example of how this type of new, detailed information on the electricity system can be used, we assess the current impacts of high penetrations of renewables on other grid components in the US. We demonstrate how dispatchable generation and electricity exchanges play an essential role in integrating fluctuating wind and solar generation.

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Recent results on the integration of variable renewable electric power into the US grid

Abstract: ABSTRACT

Cited by 6 publications

References 36 publications

Why 100% Renewable Energy Is Not Enough

Why 100% Renewable Energy Is Not Enough

Hourly accounting of carbon emissions from electricity consumption

Recent results fromenergyand emissions tracking in the US electricity system

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