Europe's Energy Transition

Insights for Policy Making

Manuel Welsch

• Editorial: Academic Press
• Año: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780128099032
• Categoría: Politique et relations internationales
• Categoría: Politique en matière d'environnement et d'énergie

Europe's Energy Transition: Insights for Policy Making looks at the availability and cost of accessing energy and how it significantly affects economic growth and competitiveness in global markets. The results in this book, from a European Commission (EC) financed project by INSIGHT_E, provide an overview of the most recent analyses, focusing on energy markets and their implications for society. Designed to inform European policymaking, elements of this book will be integrated into upcoming EC policies, giving readers invaluable insights into the cost and availability of energy, the effect of price increases affecting vulnerable consumer groups, and current topics of interest to the EC and ongoing energy debate.INSIGHT_E provides decision-makers with unbiased policy advice and insights on the latest developments, including an assessment of their potential impact.

• Presents answers to strategic questions posed by the European Commission
• Coherently assesses the energy transition, from policies to energy supply, markets, system requirements, and consumer needs
• Informed the EC "Clean Energy for All Europeans" package from end of 2016, e.g., regarding aspects of energy poverty
• Endorsed by thought leaders from within and outside of Europe, including utilities, energy agencies, research institutes, journal editors, think tanks, and the European Commission

Section V

Reliable and Flexible Energy Systems

Outline

Chapter 20 Introduction

Chapter 21 Need for Flexibility and Potential Solutions

Chapter 22 Storage Solutions and Their Value

Chapter 23 The Role of Fuel Cells and Hydrogen in Stationary Applications

Chapter 24 Need for Reliability and Measuring Its Cost

Chapter 25 Conclusions

Chapter 20

Introduction

Abhishek Shivakumar, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

Abstract

Current trends and policies are progressing in the direction of an increasing share of electricity from renewable energy sources in the EU electricity system, in particular from variable sources such as wind and photovoltaics. In parallel to this, there is increasing use of electric appliances in households, varying significantly throughout the day. Together this results in potentially large and sometimes fast variation of both electricity production and consumption. For a secure energy system, it is critical to maintain continuous service in the face of rapid and large swings in supply or demand. This introductory chapter presents the topics that will be discussed in this section, namely: the need for flexibility and potential solutions; the need for reliability and measuring its cost; and the role of storage in this context.

Keywords

Power system flexibility; energy storage; penetration of variable renewables; reliability; security of electricity supply

Reliable and affordable electricity supply is critical for any economy to function efficiently. While Europe has enjoyed a high degree of supply security over the last few decades, the utility industry has identified “liberalization and privatization” (which largely took place in the 1990s) and “renewable capacity expansion” (which forms an essential option for sustainable energy systems) as the two major trends that increase the risk of power outages [1,2]. The EU, which pursues a policy of increasing the share of renewable energy sources (RES) in national and regional generation mixes, must make additional efforts in order to maintain current levels of supply reliability.

The previous section on the impact of renewable energies on markets suggested that European regulation requests Member States to take appropriate grid- and market-related operational measures in order to maintain security of electricity supply. These may include grid adaptations as in the case of Germany [3] or performance-based regulation (PBR) for distribution system operators (DSOs) in the UK [4]. On the technical side, grid adaptations ensure that increasing amounts of variable RES can be absorbed by the power system. PBR represents a policy measure that creates an incentive for electrical utilities to improve their reliability levels.

Whatever measures are being taken, the current energy infrastructure in the concerned regions and countries will have to be strengthened to be able to accommodate growing shares of variable RES. In this section, we further expand on this topic by assessing how to define the appropriate level of security of supply and how system flexibility can contribute to achieving this level, as outlined in the following.

For a secure energy system, it is critical to maintain continuous service in the face of rapid and large swings in supply or demand. This ability is defined as “flexibility” in the context of the electricity system, and is the “extent to which a power system can adjust the balance of electricity production and consumption in response to variability, expected or otherwise.”^a Traditionally, power system flexibility was provided almost exclusively by controlling the supply side. In systems with increasing shares of variable RES, additional flexibility is needed to maintain system reliability. This is because they displace traditional, more flexible supply-side options and thus reduce the available flexibility within the system. In addition, their inherent stochastic nature simultaneously increases the need for flexibility. This has created a “flexibility gap.” Chapter 21, Need for Flexibility and Potential Solutions, proposes flexibility options and associated business models in order to address this flexibility gap.

One of the most promising options to provide flexibility to the energy system is energy storage. It has increasingly come into focus as a key enabling technology in the energy system. Battery storage, for instance, could become a game-changer in the electricity industry. In recent years, there has been a significant shift towards the Li-ion battery technology for grid applications, not only for small-scale storage but also for large-scale application. Chapter 22, Storage Solutions and Their Value, investigates the role of storage in the energy system of the past, present, and future. Further, it seeks to identify the framework conditions likely to influence technology development, in particular the regulatory hurdles, market conditions, and environmental risks.

In the medium to long term, stationary fuel cell and hydrogen (FCH) technologies and applications are considered as potentially significant elements in energy systems with a high share of RES. Frequently discussed topics include the contribution of fuel cells and hydrogen to low-carbon heat and power generation, hydrogen production from variable renewables for seasonal or daily energy storage (power-to-hydrogen), and ancillary services from fuel cells and hydrogen for the electricity grid. Besides the gain in flexibility for the energy system, FCH technologies are associated with the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollution, high energy efficiency, reduction of fossil fuel dependency, and promotion of technology exports. Chapter 23, The Role of Fuel Cells and Hydrogen in Stationary Applications, evaluates the merits and the potential of stationary FCH applications on a technology as well as on an energy system level.

The level of flexibility required is closely linked to the level of reliability demanded from the power system. Currently, (future) power system design is often based on “traditional” approaches that are based on rules of thumb derived from experiences with the current system. These may be quantified by defining an acceptable loss of load probability (LOLP), which specifies the share of time when a generation shortfall may occur. Other design criteria are redundancy measures to ensure the system can cope...