The role of spatial scale in joint optimisations of generation and transmission for European highly renewable scenarios

Abstract

Abstract-The effects of the spatial scale on the results of the optimisation of transmission and generation capacity in Europe are quantified under a 95% CO2 reduction compared to 1990 levels, interpolating between one-node-per-country solutions and many-nodes-per-country. The trade-offs that come with higher spatial detail between better exposure of transmission bottlenecks, exploitation of sites with good renewable resources (particularly wind power) and computational limitations are discussed. It is shown that solutions with no grid expansion beyond today's capacities are only around 20% more expensive than with cost-optimal grid expansion.

Scaling of transmission capacities in coarse-grained renewable electricity networks

“…-Due to the complexity of the power grid, models of the electricity system often consider a coarse-grained network representation in which the topology, load and generation patterns below a given spatial scale are aggregated into representatives nodes. Given that depending on the model the spatial scale might range from resolving single transmission stations to countries as network nodes, it is important to understand how the resulting infrastructure objectives depend on this coarsegraining procedure [2]. In this contribution, we study scaling properties of transmission infrastructure measures under coarse-graining in a simplified, but data-driven and spatially detailed model of a highly renewable European electricity system.…”

“…In the present article we defined transmission capacities in retrospect, determined by the flow statistics at the different levels of coarse-graining. Alternatively one could also obtain macroscopic power flows by aggregating microscopic flows [16], or directly aggregate the existing transmission infrastructure without calculating power flows [2]. Beyond the field of electricity system modelling, the role of coarse-graining for the determination of system objectives is also relevant for other infrastructure and transport networks [13].…”

“…Unfortunately, such a detailed spatial model resolution comes with challenging demands in data quality and computational complexity. Consequently, depending on the focus and the complexity of the model one has to apply a spatial coarse-graining, which aggregates network infrastructure, load and generation patterns over spatial scales ranging from a few kilometers to entire countries [2]. By changing the network topology as well as the spatio-temporal pattern of nodal power injections, this coarse-graining procedure has in particular an impact on the power flows and the resulting transmission infrastructure needs proposed by the model.…”

The role of hydro power, storage and transmission in the decarbonization of the Chinese power system

“…We also experiment constraining total transmission volume similar to refs. [15,16] and show the consequent shift in the investment landscapes with comparison to the European case.…”

Incorporating Power Transmission Bottlenecks into Aggregated Energy System Models

“…However, since the number of clusters correlates with the trade-off between model accuracy and performance, conducting further research on finding an optimal value for k becomes relevant. Some work in the literature already emphasizes this topic on the algorithmic side [55] as well as on the application side [44,56]; however, this goes beyond the focus of the current study.…”