A Suitable Flexibility Assessment Approach for the Pre-Screening Phase of Power System Planning Applied on the Greek Power System

Abstract

The increasing penetration of variable renewable energy (VRE) sources into the electrical grid poses significant challenges for balancing the power system supply and demand. In order to cope with these challenges, system flexibility is needed. Therefore, system operators need to evaluate and plan ahead flexibility adequacy for their power systems in order to ensure reliable operation under high VRE penetration. In this context, we present a suitable high-level flexibility assessment study applied on a real system, namely the Greek power system, that is based on actual data and can provide useful preliminary results regarding the flexibility level and the VRE integration potential. More specifically, in the first step, the flexibility needs and flexibility resources are determined. In the second step, the flexibility index (FIX) and the present VRE penetration potential (PVP) metric are calculated in order to quantify how flexible the Greek power system is and how much VRE capacity can be reliably balanced. Finally, some initial results are provided that quantity how different modern flexibility solutions impact the VRE penetration potential of the Greek system.