Sector coupling and batteries as flexibility options in the 2050 renewable power system

Abstract

To meet the goal of the European Union of becoming climate neutral in 2050, the Netherlands and North West Europe will integrate more and more variable renewable energy sources (VRE) into their power system. The uncertain weather conditions on which the VRE are dependent, will increase the need for a more flexible power system. An important measurement to control the balance of supply and demand in a power system with a lot of variable renewable energy is curtailing the excess power of renewable energy. However, the large amount of renewable energy that is currently integrated will result in an increase in lost power through curtailment. This increase in lost power can result in renewable energy projects (current and future) not getting the expected economic benefits, which can result in less investments in these projects. To prevent this, it is necessary to reduce this curtailment by either storing the otherwise lost power with batteries or by using it through sector coupling possibilities such as power-to-heat, power-to-gas, or power-to-mobility. The aim of this study is to research the potential of sector coupling options and batteries in utilizing the lost power from VRE curtailment by means of the IRENA FlexTool. In order to reach the objective of this study, two scenarios were used on two scales, the Netherlands and North West Europe and were modeled with the IRENA FlexTool. In order to compare the different sector coupling possibilities and batteries, an optimal design of experiments was used. The results of the sector coupling and batteries in this design of experiment were compared on their levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and the loss of load and curtailment of the power system. The study showed that the IRENA FlexTool is better suited to model smaller energy systems to gain a quick insight into the flexibility issues of loss of load and curtailment, instead of modelling larger complex energy systems. The modelling results of the IRENA FlexTool shows that the costs for utilizing the lost power of curtailment and avoiding loss of load differs for the Netherlands and North West Europe. For North West Europe, batteries have the lowest LCOE when almost all lost power trough curtailment is used. Hydrogen provides a good solution for the loss of load. Therefore, both battery storage and hydrogen could be a good substitution for natural gas in NWEU. For the Netherlands hydrogen storage is the option with the lowest LCOE when all lost power through curtailment is used and loss of load is avoided. Therefore, hydrogen could provide a good substitution for natural gas in the Netherlands. The difference in LCOE can be explained through the allocation of the power use of batteries and sector coupling, but this is not included in this study. Future research should focus on the interaction between the different options. This could provide useful results on how to efficiently allocate and use battery storage and sector coupling, when they are used in combination with each other.