24Contribution of Bulk Energy Storage to Integrating Variable Renewable Energies in Future European Electricity Systems
Karl A. Zach and Hans Auer
Energy Economics Group, Institute of Energy Systems and Electrical Drives, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria
Remarkably higher expected shares of variable renewable energy sources for electricity generation (RES‐Electricity) than those available today will be a great challenge for the European power system. Bulk electricity storage technologies (EST) – that is, pumped‐hydro energy storage (PHES) – are considered a key component while facing these future challenges. The conducted analysis is based on the modeling results of the Blue storyline of the SUSPLAN project that is characterized by a high growth of RES‐Electricity deployment. The RES‐Electricity deployment results on a country level for the years 2030 and 2050, the age structure of the existing TPP portfolio, and hourly values of electricity demand and RES‐Electricity generation are taken as input for a linear optimization algorithm, which is implemented to analyze the importance of bulk electricity storage technologies for integrating large amounts of variable RES‐Electricity in European regions. Two regions are analyzed in detail: central western Europe (CWE) and the Iberian Peninsula. The results show that due to the age‐related phase out of thermal power plants (TPP) in the future, additional new power plant capacities will be needed in many European regions ...