Abstract
Economic feasibility studies of concentrated solar power (CSP) plants with thermal energy storage (TES) systems have been mainly based on the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), disregarding the economic benefits to the electricity system resulting from the dispatchability of the CSP plants. The analysis of these benefits is essential since the existence of storage can provide greater operating flexibility to the system. Although there are few studies on the benefits of CSP plants in thermoelectric systems, this analysis has not yet been done in a predominantly hydroelectric system. In this paper, CSP plants with TES systems were inserted in a hydrothermal system in order to estimate the economic benefits and the net cost of electricity generated by those plants. The System Advisor Model (SAM) and the hydrothermal scheduling model DESSEM were used in a real case study of inclusion of CSP plants in the Brazilian system. The results indicate that the cost of a CSP plant, previously estimated by the LCOE, can be reduced by at least 37% when considering its benefits to a hydrothermal system, increasing its competitiveness with other technologies. Therefore, we propose the use of the net cost for an appropriate comparison among energy sources.
Highlights
IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
The main contribution of this paper is to evaluate the economic benefits of the concentrated solar power (CSP) plants in hydrothermal systems with predominantly hydropower generation and to compute the net cost of the electricity generated by CSP plants, which is based on the difference between the sum of the capital and the operation cost of the plant and the economic benefits of its inclusion in the system
The results show that CSP plants can bring benefits to the hydrothermal system and their economic viability may be different when estimated based on the net cost methodology
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Electricity generation systems have undergone a significant transformation by the growing use of intermittent power sources, such as wind and solar photovoltaic (PV). Energy, due to a reduction in their costs and policies to encourage renewable technologies. Despite the recent cost reduction and the low environmental impact of wind and solar. PV plants without batteries, these generation technologies have low flexibility, since they rely on intermittent resources and do not have energy storage systems, causing numerous technical and economic challenges in the planning and operation of electricity systems
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