Impact of Grid-Scale Electricity Storage and Electric Vehicles on Renewable Energy Penetration: A Case Study for Italy

Abstract

Storage technologies are progressively emerging as a key measure to accommodate high shares of intermittent renewables with a view to guarantee their effective integration towards a profound decarbonisation of existing energy systems. This study aims to evaluate to what extent electricity storage can contribute to a significant renewable penetration by absorbing otherwise-curtailed renewable surplus and quantitatively defines the associated costs. Under a Smart Energy System perspective, a variety of future scenarios are defined for the Italian case based on a progressively increasing renewable and storage capacity feeding an ever-larger electrified demand mostly made up of electric vehicles and, to some extent, heat pumps and power-to-gas/liquid technologies. Results are compared in terms of crucial environmental and techno-economic indicators and discussed with respect to storage operating parameters. The outcome of this analysis reveals the remarkable role of electricity storage in increasing system flexibility and reducing, in the range 24–44%, the renewable capacity required to meet a given sustainability target. Nonetheless, such achievements become feasible only under relatively low investment and operating costs, condition that excludes electrochemical storage solutions and privileges low-cost alternatives that at present, however, exist only at a pilot or demonstration scale.

On the Role of Electric Vehicles towards Low-Carbon Energy Systems: Italy and Germany in Comparison

“…Nonetheless, it is worth mentioning that curtailments cannot be effectively reduced unless the deployment of renewable sources is extended, besides transportations, also to other sectors of the energy system to maximise the positive effects of sector coupling [52], or suitable grid-scale electricity storage systems become available and widely used [53]. Tables 18 and 19 and show CO2 variations (with respect to 2016 base-case), RES penetration and surplus (both expressed as a percentage of the total production) for increasing EV penetrations comparing dump and smart charging strategies at the highest RES level.…”

The potential of sector coupling in future European energy systems: Soft linking between the Dispa-SET and JRC-EU-TIMES models

“…Electric vehicles as a new power source for electric utilities were analysed by Kempron et al [23], and Schill et al [24] analysed power system impacts of electric vehicles on a German case study. A similar analysis has been performed for the case of Italy, showing that the flexibility ensured by electric vehicles and battery storage reduces the need for VRES capacity expansion by 24-44% [25]. Technological overview, systems analysis and economic assessment of the power-to-gas technologies were analysed by Robinius et al [26] while energy system analysis for evaluation of sector coupling technologies was analysed by Boblenz et al [27].…”

An Improved Multicriteria Optimization Method for Solving the Electric Vehicles Planning Issue in Smart Grids via Green Energy Sources

“…The cost of the wind turbine exploitation C Wind(DG) and the cost of solar cell exploitation C PV (DG) are calculated via (16) and (17), respectively:…”

“…The commonly used utilitarian function of the consumers' electricity consumption is a quadratic function, which is shown in relation (49) [16]:…”