Scottish Islands Interconnections: Modelling the Impacts on the UK Electricity Network of Geographically Diverse Wind and Marine Energy

Chris Matthew,Catalina Spataru

doi:10.3390/en14113175

Abstract

To meet climate change goals, the decarbonisation of the UK electricity supply is crucial. Increased geographic diversity and resource use could help provide grid and market stability and reduce CO2 intensive balancing actions. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of geographic diversity and Scottish island renewable energy on the UK network. This has been done by using the energy market modelling software PLEXOS with results validated using data for 2017/18. The model considers spatial diversification and forecasting errors by modelling day-ahead and intra-day markets with nodes for each distribution network operator region and island group. It was concluded that Scottish island renewable capacity could have a stabilising effect on the variability of renewables in terms of electricity generated, prices and forecasting errors, from the timescale of the entire year down to hours. The ability of geographically diverse generators to receive a higher price for electricity generated was shown to decrease with increased island capacity. Instances of negative prices were reduced with supply diversity (wind and marine) but not geographic diversity. Day ahead errors showed most clearly the impact of diversity of supply, particularly given the predictability of tidal stream generation.

Highlights

The UK has recently upgraded climate change goals to net zero emissions by 2050, which in Scotland have been brought forward to 2045 [1]
The in coal generation is minimalthat the improved geographic diversity and diversity sity of supply have lesser impact on times when the coal is the marginal generation
The results show that for the modelled year of 2017/18, geographic diversity from the Scottish islands should have a positive impact on the variance of UK electricity markets

Summary

Introduction

The UK has recently upgraded climate change goals to net zero emissions by 2050, which in Scotland have been brought forward to 2045 [1] This will require significant investment in renewable generation capacity to replace dependence on fossil fuels. The electricity sector will need to cope with a high penetration of variable renewable energy whilst maintaining demand–supply balance. Undesirable outcomes of this include reliance on dispatchable fossil fuel generation for balancing actions (increasing costs and emissions) and increased instability of electricity prices, indicating a need for additional investment in remedial actions such as storage, balancing services or demand side management [5]. Net zero emissions energy networks will need to be much more dispersed and technologically diverse to meet growing demand using renewable resources

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Discussion

Conclusion