Abstract
Renewable integration into the electricity system of Great Britain (GB) is causing considerable demand for additional flexibility from plants. In particular, a considerable share of this flexibility may be dispatched to secure post-fault transient frequency dynamics. Pursuant to the unprecedented changes to the traditional portfolio of generation sources, this work presents a detailed analysis of the potential system-level value of unlocking flexibility from nuclear electricity production. A rigorous enhanced mixed integer linear programming (MILP) unit commitment formulation is adopted to simulate several generation-demand scenarios where different layers of flexibility are associated to the operation of nuclear power plants. Moreover, the proposed optimisation model is able to assess the benefit of the large contribution to the system inertial response provided by nuclear power plants. This is made possible by considering a set of linearised inertia-dependent and multi-speed constraints on post fault frequency dynamics. Several case studies are introduced considering 2050 GB low-carbon scenarios. The value of operating the nuclear fleet under more flexible paradigms is assessed, including environmental considerations quantified in terms of system-level CO2 emissions’ reduction.
Highlights
The integration of large shares of Variable Renewable Energy Sources (VRES) into the electricity system of Great Britain (GB) is changing the way the power system is operated. This is mainly since an increasing number of conventional synchronous generators are being displaced by VRES, whose ability to contribute to the security of the system is reduced [1]
Based on the fundamental methodology proposed in Reference [7], this study aims at quantifying the potential benefits of nuclear operational flexibility for achieving security/stability in the power system under high electrification scenarios
Almost all the VRES generation is fully used, and the demand is still largely met by conventional generators
Summary
The integration of large shares of Variable Renewable Energy Sources (VRES) into the electricity system of Great Britain (GB) is changing the way the power system is operated This is mainly since an increasing number of conventional synchronous generators are being displaced by VRES, whose ability to contribute to the security of the system is reduced [1]. The demands on frequency response depend on the available inertia, the largest possible infeed loss (which is not expected to change [7]) and the speed in the provision of frequency response services It is, important to consider technologies capable of providing inertial response [2,8,9,10,11] and new ancillary services, namely Enhanced Frequency Response (EFR) [7,12,13,14,15], in any analysis. In addition to the challenges associated with higher levels of VRES, there is an increased desire from policymakers from many countries, including the UK, to electrify more of current non-electric demand (for example transport) to aid with decarbonisation targets for the year 2050 [16,17]
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