In the last decades, energy modelling has supported energy planning by offering insights into the dynamics between energy access, resource use, and sustainable development. Especially in recent years, there has been an attempt to strengthen the science-policy interface and increase the involvement of society in energy planning processes. This has, both in the EU and worldwide, led to the development of open-source and transparent energy modelling practices. This paper describes the role of an open-source energy modelling tool in the energy planning process and highlights its importance for society. Specifically, it describes the existence and characteristics of the relationship between developing an open-source, freely available tool and its application, dissemination and use for policy making. Using the example of the Open Source energy Modelling System (OSeMOSYS), this work focuses on practices that were established within the community and that made the framework's development and application both relevant and scientifically grounded.
Electromobility is expected to experience a significant uptake in the coming years, particularly in the Netherlands, where the possibility to ban combustion engine car sales by 2025 is under discussion. This paper aims at evaluating the impact of an increased penetration of battery electric vehicles (BEV) on the Dutch power system, using the Dispa-SET unit commitment and optimal dispatch model. The analysis starts with an extensive dataset of charging transactions for the year 2015 in the Netherlands, recorded from about one third of all public charging stations in the country. This dataset is used to generate the charging load profile of the current BEVs fleet, and to compute the connected BEVs battery capacity at each hour of the year, to be used for modelling a Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) option in the system. Different hypotheses are then formulated regarding the future penetration of this technology. The corresponding charging profiles and available battery capacities are generated. These time series are then input into Dispa-SET to simulate the Dutch power system under different hypotheses of BEV and variable renewable energy deployment. Two different BEV charging cases are distinguished: an immediate charging strategy, and the use of BEVs battery capacity as variable storage unit. For each scenario, aggregated indicators are computed, including average electricity price, cycling of power plants, electricity mix in each country, or level of curtailment. Results indicate that the effect of BEVs is negligible at the current deployment levels. It becomes significant if BEVs constitute the largest share of the vehicles fleet. In this case, the additional consumption is absorbed by the power system at the expense of higher electricity generation costs. If BEVs are used for V2G, they can positively impact the power system, thus increasing system flexibility and significantly reducing the level of curtailment in case of high shares of renewables.
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