Average Cost Of Electricity Research Articles

Economic and Technical Assessing the Hybridization of Solar Combined Cycle System with Fossil Fuel and Rock Bed Thermal Energy Storage in Neom City

Rising energy demands, the depletion of fossil fuels, and their environmental impact necessitate a shift towards sustainable power generation. Concentrating solar power (CSP) offers a promising solution. This study examines a hybridization of a combined cycle power plant (CCPP) based on solar energy with fossil fuel and energy storage in rock layers to increase Saudi Arabia’s electricity production from renewable energy. The fuel is used to keep the temperature at the inlet of the gas turbine at 1000 °C, ensuring the power produced by the Rankine cycle remains constant. During the summer, the sun is the main source of power generation, whereas in the winter, reliance on fuel increases significantly. The Brayton cycle operates for 10 h during peak solar radiation periods, storing exhaust heat in rock beds. For the remaining 14 h of the day, this stored heat is discharged to operate the Rankine steam cycle. Simulations and optimizations are performed, and the system is evaluated using a comprehensive 4E analysis (energy, exergy, exergoconomic, and environmental) alongside a sustainability assessment. A parametric evaluation examines the effect of key factors on system performance. The rock bed storage system compensates for solar intermittency, enabling power generation even without sunlight. The study reveals that the system generated 12.334 MW in June, achieving an energy efficiency of 37% and an exergy efficiency of 40.35%. The average electricity cost during this period was 0.0303 USD/kWh, and the carbon footprint was 0.108 kg CO2/kWh. In contrast, during January, the system produced 13.276 MW with an energy efficiency of 37.91% and an exergy efficiency of 44.16%. The average electricity cost in January was 0.045 USD/kWh, and the carbon footprint was 0.1 kg CO2/kWh. Interestingly, solar energy played a significant role: it contributed 81.42% of the heat in June, while in January, it accounted for 46.77%. The reduced electricity costs during June are primarily attributed to the abundant sunshine, which significantly powered the system.

Real options analysis of seawater desalination with solar photovoltaic energy systems: A least-squares stochastic perspective

Real Options Analysis (ROA) offers a modern theoretical framework to evaluate the impact of managerial flexibilities and uncertainties on the intrinsic investment value of renewable-powered desalination projects. This study analyzes Photovoltaic-powered Reverse Osmosis (PV-RO) desalination plants using a novel Least Square Monte-Carlo Real Options Analysis (LSMC-ROA) to assess the deferral of investment decisions. Three scenarios for powering RO are explored: reliance on the national grid with a subsidized electricity tariff for of $0.085/kWh, which applicable only to governmental sections in Saudi Arabia, full PV power with grid balancing ($0.083/kWh), and PV with a battery storage system (average electricity cost of $0.138/kWh). The presented modeling results reveal that considering the flexibility to defer and wait for new information, the total investment values would be $43.9 million, $59.6 million, and $30.5 million, respectively. Therefore, the optimal investment timing might be to defer investment to the second year. Additionally, the analysis reveals an unexpected outcome: a threshold salinity level for feedwater exists that can affect the economic viability of renewable-powered desalination. The proposed LSMC-ROA framework emerges as a robust tool for addressing uncertainties and assessing economic feasibility in the context of PV-RO desalination projects.

Understanding the role and design space of demand sinks in low-carbon power systems

As the availability of weather-dependent, zero marginal cost resources such as wind and solar power increases, a variety of flexible electricity loads, or ‘demand sinks’, could be deployed to use intermittently available low-cost electricity to produce valuable outputs. This study provides a general framework to evaluate any potential demand sink technology and understand its viability to be deployed cost-effectively in low-carbon power systems. We use an electricity system optimization model to assess 98 discrete combinations of capital costs and output values that collectively span the range of feasible characteristics of potential demand sink technologies. We find that candidates like hydrogen electrolysis, direct air capture, and flexible electric heating can all achieve significant installed capacity (>10% of system peak load) if lower capital costs are reached in the future. Demand sink technologies significantly increase installed wind and solar capacity while not significantly affecting battery storage, firm generating capacity, or the average cost of electricity.

Performance Assessment of Solar Ice Slurry Cold Storage System for Solar Refrigerated Vehicle

This article mainly analyzes the ice slurry cold storage system in solar refrigerated vehicles, calculates and studies the thermal properties of the ice slurry, the cold load of the refrigerated vehicle, and the solar photovoltaic panels, and calculates the fuel savings of using solar power generation. Study the demand for ice slurry in ice slurry storage systems under different energy utilization efficiencies, analyze the economy of solar ice slurry generation systems, and calculate the recovery period of the system in this paper. The daily power generation of solar photovoltaic panels can run the electric motor for 2.93 hours. The solar refrigerated truck can save 7.91 liters of oil per day and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.25×107 liters per day. The average annual electricity cost savings are 4026.67 CNY. Based on the total cost of the photovoltaic energy storage hybrid quality system, it will take 3.89 years to recover the cost. Calculate the density and enthalpy of the ice slurry based on the thermophysical model of the ice slurry, and provide different utilization amounts for the ice slurry mass generated by the ice slurry generation system at different efficiencies. Calculate the total weight of the ice slurry system.

Impact of benchmark tightening design under output-based ETS on China's power sector

China's national Emission Trading System (ETS), which covers the power sector, is a key policy for supporting the low-carbon transformation of the power sector under China's carbon neutrality target. This study improved the portrayal of China's national ETS in the power planning model and characterised its output-based mechanism and special gas-fired power design. The impacts of different output-based ETS designs on the decarbonisation of power systems in China were then explored. The results show that the ETS can effectively peak the emissions of China's power sector earlier and support the application of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology with slight impact on the average electricity cost. Benchmark tightening by 2%–5% every five years can lead to 3%–7% lower peak emissions of the power sector and deployment of CCS technology in 2025–2030. However, the current ETS design, which covers only coal- and gas-fired power units, plays a limited role in promoting renewable energy development by encouraging power generation by 1.3 % in 2035, with benchmark tightening of 5 % every five years. Distribution effects will occur among technologies and regions and will increase under more stringent benchmarks. Therefore, a moderate benchmark tightening rate is required to balance emission reduction and distribution effects in the near future.

Bending the emission curve ― The role of renewables and nuclear power in achieving a net-zero power system in India

As India is on the cusp of a significant energy transition, this study explores the future pathways towards a decarbonised Indian power sector by using various plausible options such as variable renewable energy technologies, nuclear power, energy storage and green H2. The TIMES-based optimisation model with an hourly temporal resolution has been run for fifty years, from 2020 to 2070, to determine the optimal planning and operation of the Indian power sector. The model includes not only the long-term planning of the Indian power sector but also considers the short-term operational flexibility constraints of the thermal generators, grid-scale storage as balancing units, and the demand for green H2 derived from renewable energy sources (RES). Base-case model results indicate that the average coal capacity and CO2 emissions would continue to rise in the short term, reaching a peak by 2040 before gradually declining. However, the overall cost of transition is relatively independent of the technology choice, where the rise in fuel cost in the high nuclear scenario would be offset by the increased capital investment in a renewable-dominated scenario. The average annual investment required to achieve a zero-emission power sector is approximately USD 550 billion. The average ex-bus cost of electricity would increase from USD 36 per MWh in 2020 to about USD 50 per MWh in 2070. This analysis will provide valuable insights to all the relevant stakeholders in emerging and developing economies such as India to explore future cost-effective decarbonisation pathways of the power sector.

Renewable portfolio standards and electricity prices

Green targets such as renewable portfolio standards have been popular in recent years, and various aspects of green targets have been studied. However, green targets have not always been supported, and one possible reason is that green targets may increase the electricity price. This paper analytically studies the long-run effects of renewable portfolio standards on the electricity price. The analysis shows that the effects depend on the nature of the long-run average cost. With a constant average cost, an increase in the stringency of the standard increases the electricity price. With an increasing average cost, the effects hinge on whether the average cost of green electricity increases faster or slower than that of brown electricity. The paper also considers the difference between the long-run effects and the short-run effects and the difference between the effects of an increase in the stringency of an existing standard and the effects of introducing a standard.

Online model-based predictive control with smart thermostats: application to an experimental house in Québec

This paper tests the impact of model resolution and structure on the performance of Model Predictive Control (MPC) implementation in an unoccupied research house in Québec equipped with smart thermostats. Two low-order models and a high-order multi-zone model were calibrated with measured data, with the structure of the multi-zone model being generated automatically during the calibration procedure. The three models were used to apply real-time MPC to an experimental house in Québec using the established dynamic tariffs for morning and evening peaks. MPC with any of the three models successfully preheated the house before the demand-response events, outperforming the reference reactive controller, reducing cost and thermal discomfort. The high-order multi-zone model performed the best, reducing average cost of electricity by 55% and high-price energy consumption by 71%, compared to the low-order models, which achieved cost reductions of 40% and 44% and energy consumption reductions of 48% and 54% respectively.

Techno-economic comparison of P2P energy sharing and residential battery storage in the photovoltaic community

ABSTRACT To quantify the techno-economic benefits of peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing and residential battery storage and clarify their inter-relationship, this study proposes four working modes for the PV community with P2P energy sharing and batteries as variables. Besides, the energy flow and electricity cost components are comprehensively quantified at the community and individual customer levels. The yearly simulation results indicate that the batteries and P2P sharing both can increase the community’s self-sufficiency rate (SSR) and self-consumption rate (SCR) by 70–80%. Regarding economics, installing batteries has little effect on average electricity cost (AEC) because of its high cost, while P2P sharing can reduce the AEC by 8.25%. P2P energy sharing combined with battery has the best techno-economicperformance, increasing the SSR and SCR by around 140% and reducing the AEC by 10%, thus is suggested as the optimal mode. In the combined mode, 15% less PV power is stored in batteries than in the only battery storage system, demonstrating that the energy storage role of batteries is not fully exploited. This is because P2P energy sharing is designed to use limited surplus PV power before battery charging. Therefore, the battery size can be reduced to save initial investment in the combined mode.

An energy-as-a-service business model for aggregators of prosumers

Traditional retail business models price electricity using volumetric tariffs, which charge customers for the unit of energy consumed. These tariffs were designed for passive consumers with low flexibility. In this paper, we argue that these volumetric tariffs are unsuitable for prosumers with high flexibility since they are unable to adequately value the flexibility of their distributed energy resources in multiple electricity markets. This reduces the interest of prosumers participating in aggregators’ business models. To address this issue, we propose a new business model for aggregators of prosumers, based on the concept of energy-as-a-service. In this business model, prosumers pay a monthly fee for aggregators to represent and optimize them in multiple wholesale electricity markets, including in energy and ancillary service markets. The monthly fee is computed by a new techno-economic simulation framework proposed in this paper, which can also be used to estimate the profitability of the new business model from the perspectives of both the aggregator and prosumers. Our experiments on a portfolio of real prosumers from Australia show that the new business model maximizes the economic benefits of both the aggregator and prosumers by increasing the average profit of the aggregator by 438% and reducing the average electricity cost of prosumers from $583/year to $0 when compared to two of the most common retail business models available in the Australian market. In other words, the economic benefit for prosumers is free electricity. In addition to this benefit, the new business model also provides simplicity and predictability to prosumers, as they are offered a guaranteed outcome before providing the services.

Waste heat recovery and utilization of cement rotary kiln based on biomass energy

A rotary kiln is a central piece of equipment for the calcination of clinker in the production of cement. Biomass energy has been applied to rotary kilns, and solar energy has been introduced to assist the energy supply. Coupled optimization results for biomass energy and solar energy applications are compared to the single fossil energy used in the base period. A field survey and statistical analysis and integration of cement clinker production sites in China’s Central Plains Economic Zone revealed a negative linear correlation between the consumption of raw coal in the cement production process and the environmental temperature and humidity parameters of the production lines. The energy consumption is large and the energy utilization of the system is low, with goodness of fit of R=0.962. Coupled solar and biomass energy use in the audit period and single energy use in the base period comparison revealed a 19.5% reduction in electricity consumption, a 25.4% reduction in coal consumption and a 4.39% increase in heavy oil consumption. From 2017 to 2020, the average annual consumption cost of electricity and raw coal decreased, while the average annual consumption cost of heavy fuel oil slowly increased. After verification during the audit period, compared with the base period, the total production cost of the case enterprise can be reduced approximately 5.17%, in which the energy cost decreased 0.9%.

Energy industry development: key trends and the core determinants

Energy underpins the development and enables investment, innovation, and new industries that drive jobs, inclusive growth, and the shared prosperity of entire economies. The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have led to a sharp rise in energy prices, increasing concerns about energy shortages and energy security, and slowing progress toward universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy by 2030. The purpose of the article is to study key trends and trends in the development of the global energy sector. Ex-post-economic analysis was used during the retrospective analysis. The conducted analysis made it possible to single out three main trends in the development of the global energy sector: decarbonization, digitalization, and decentralization. The results of the evaluation of statistical information on the development of alternative energy allowed us to draw the following conclusions. The global weighted average current cost of electricity for solar photovoltaic and onshore wind decreased by 77% and 35%, respectively, between 2010 and 2018. Global electricity production from renewable energy sources also increased by 7% in 2018. led by China, which accounted for nearly 37% of offshore wind growth and 44% of solar PV growth. However, significant progress in the use of renewable energy sources is still concentrated in the power industry. The share of renewable energy sources in the transport and heating sectors is still limited, although showing moderate growth. The study of forecast indicators confirmed the steady trend of growth in the demand for renewable energy. Between 2018 and 2030, global demand for renewable energy is projected to grow by 64%. The results of the provided research can be used further in the study of the development of various sectors of the energy industry, in particular, alternative electricity, wind energy, etc.

The cost dynamics of hydrogen supply in future energy systems – A techno-economic study

This work aims to investigate the time-resolved cost of electrolytic hydrogen in a future climate-neutral electricity system with high shares of variable renewable electricity generation in which hydrogen is used in the industry and transport sectors, as well as for time-shifting electricity generation. The work applies a techno-economic optimization model, which incorporates both exogenous (industry and transport) and endogenous (time-shifting of electricity generation) hydrogen demands, to elucidate the parameters that affect the cost of hydrogen.The results highlight that several parameters influence the cost of hydrogen. The strongest influential parameter is the cost of electricity. Also important are cost-optimal dimensioning of the electrolyzer and hydrogen storage capacities, as these capacities during certain periods limit hydrogen production, thereby setting the marginal cost of hydrogen. Another decisive factor is the nature of the hydrogen demand, whereby flexibility in the hydrogen demand can reduce the cost of supplying hydrogen, given that the demand can be shifted in time.In addition, the modeling shows that time-shifting electricity generation via hydrogen production, with subsequent reconversion back to electricity, plays an important in the climate-neutral electricity system investigated, decreasing the average electricity cost by 2%–16%. Furthermore, as expected, the results show that the cost of hydrogen from an off-grid, island-mode-operated industry is more expensive than the cost of hydrogen from all scenarios with a fully interconnected electricity system.

Energy storage with Power-to-Power systems relying on photovoltaic and hydrogen: modelling the operation with secondary reserve provision

Energy storage is increasingly required in order to cope with the fluctuations of renewable energy sources, especially in power generation. In many countries, the electric market is undergoing regulatory transformations that aim at increasing the type and number of technologies that can provide grid services, either alone or as virtual aggregates. In this context, this work investigates the economic profitability of Secondary Frequency Reserve (SFR) provision to the electric grid through integrated generation-and-storage systems. In particular, the case of Italy is assessed, where recent projects opened the Ancillary Service Market (ASM) to relevant generation units or aggregates of units, including programmable and non-programmable renewable sources, consumption units, and energy storage systems. The operation of a hydrogen-based Power-to-Power (P2P) system, designed to supply an electric load with locally generated electricity from a solar PV field, is studied when acting on both the Day-Ahead Market (DAM) and the ASM. A mixed-integer linear optimization problem is set up that minimizes the annual average cost of electricity to the load. The analysis considers a broad range of options in terms of electricity prices on the DAM and price-quantity combinations of accepted offers on the ASM. Results show that the economic advantages deriving from the utilization of P2P systems increase with more fluctuating prices. The provision of SFR services with an optimal bidding strategy and asymmetric bids allows one to reduce the average cost of electricity up to about 15 % with respect to the operation on the DAM only.

Techno-Economic Analysis of Atmospheric Water Generation by Hybrid Nanofluids to Mitigate Global Water Scarcity

Globally, multiple efforts are being made to develop active atmospheric water generation (AWG) or atmospheric water extraction (AWE) systems, particularly using direct air-cooling technology to produce water from ambient air. However, this legacy technique is highly energy-intensive; it can only be operated when the local dew point is above the freezing point of water, and does not scale to create enough water to offer solutions for most industries, services, or agriculture. Liquid-desiccant-based AWG methods show promising performance advantages, and offer a versatile approach to help address the thermodynamics, health risks, and geographic constraints currently encountered by conventional active AWG systems. In this study, we performed a techno-economic analysis of a liquid-desiccant-based AWG system with a continuous operating style. An energy balance was performed on a single design point of the AWG system configuration while using a LiCl liquid desiccant loaded with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). We showed that the MWCNTs can be doped in LiCl for effective heat transfer during water desorption, resulting in lowering of the sensible heat load by ≈49% on the AWG system. We demonstrated that the specific energy consumption (SEC) can currently be obtained as low as 0.67 kWh per US gallon, while changing the inlet desiccant stream concentration of MWCNT-doped LiCl under the given conditions. While the production cost of water (COW) showed a significant regional dependency, economic analysis revealed that water can be produced at a minimum selling price of USD 0.085 per US gallon, based on the 2021 annual average wholesale electricity cost of USD 0.125 per kWh in the U.S.A., thereby providing a strong foundation for future research to meet desirable and competitive water costs by 2026, but before 2031.

Economic costs and environmental impacts of fossil fuel dependency in sub-Saharan Africa: A Nigerian dilemma

Problem statementThe fleet of gasoline generators used for electrical power generation in urban areas in certain parts of sub-Saharan Africa has increased notably. This trend has economic and ecological cost implications for end-users (households and small businesses) and society. Due to lack of data, there exist hardly any empirical studies quantifying the drivers of adoption and the magnitude and of the costs and the impact on people's welfare, energy and environmental degradation. Closing this knowledge gap is critical to reach certain Sustainable Development Goals: 1 – No poverty, 7 – Affordable and clean energy, and 13 – Climate action across sub-Saharan Africa. MethodologyOrdinary Least Squares (OLS) regression was applied to determine the socioeconomic drivers of usage while a levelized- and life cycle cost assessment was used to estimate the economic costs of gasoline generators. The analysis is based on a unique dataset of 100 urban gasoline generator users in Lagos, Nigeria. ResultsPrimary motivation for the adoption of gasoline generators for electrical power generation is frequent on-grid power outages. The extent to which power generators are adopted, relates to the level of education, and correlated to education, income. Furthermore, the average cost of electricity generated through gasoline generators (USD 0.44 or ₦159 per kWh) is substantially higher than on-grid electricity supply (USD 0.06 or ₦20 per kWh). End-users of gasoline generators spend 48 % (ca. USD 99 or ₦35,727) of their monthly (ca. USD 207 or ₦74,702) income on electricity. Furthermore, the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the current fleet of generators in Lagos was estimated at 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), which is equivalent to the emissions from 326,087 passenger cars. PolicyPolicymakers must push for energy policy and incentives that promote sustainable electricity generation and use among urban households and small businesses in Lagos and throughout Nigeria.

Techno-economic approach for optimum solar assisted ground source heat pump integration in buildings

Two-step approach for optimum solar assisted ground source heat pump integration in buildings is proposed. At the first step energy targeting based on dynamic pinch analysis allows to target the energy and optimum equipment size according to buildings’ dynamic demands, and as a result, several energy efficient daily design candidates are extracted. At the second step of the proposed approach, a final design working for the whole year is selected among all the candidates by computing the total annual cost (TAC). A special algorithm is proposed to compute the yearly average energy and capital cost penalty for complementary hot/cold utilities in order to adapt the daily designs to the overall year design. As an objective function, TAC is defined for a 20-year lifetime design. Moreover, the TAC of several daily optimum designs (DOD) based on different scenarios are investigated for a multifamily test building. In the context of Canadian market, it is illustrated that the choice of the overall year integration design depends mainly on the electricity cost. For example, with Quebec electricity cost (i.e., 0.073 CAD/kWh), the DOD of September is optimal for the whole year, where there is no need for vertical ground heat exchangers. However, if Canadian average electricity cost (i.e., 0.147 CAD/kWh) is considered, the DOD of March is optimal for the whole year, with a vertical ground heat exchanger depth of 200 m. The DOD of September and March can reduce building’s annual electricity consumption by 55.9% and 79.2%, respectively.

Technical and economic analysis of a thermoelectric air conditioning system

The paper presents simulations of an air conditioning system based on thermoelectric modules. The proposed system is of a very simple structure, easy to control, scalable, noiseless, and harmless to the environment. The most important parameters that were to be changed were the number of modules, the electric current, and the size of the heat exchangers. The analyses were carried out for a commercially available thermoelectric module whose parameters were determined experimentally. The air conditioning system was analysed in terms of its cooling capacity and COP. Furthermore, it was optimized with economic criteria to achieve the highest cooling capacity of 1 dollar of total cost (electricity and investment) in a set period of device lifetime (ETCC – economic total cooling capacity). For 2400 h of device operation, at a temperature difference of 5 K and the average electricity cost in the EU, the optimized ETCC totals about 0.58 W/$. With the possibility of altering the inner geometry of the thermoelectric modules, the factor increased to 0.64 W/$. The test results showed that the device optimized in terms of ETCC did not operate with maximum cooling power and could be overloaded by about 30% in the reference working conditions.

Thermoeconomic analysis of a solar-driven hydrogen production system with proton exchange membrane water electrolysis unit

One of the most important methods for hydrogen production is proton exchange membrane electrolysis because of its low environmental impact and easy maintenance. In the present work, a proton exchange membrane electrolyzer system for hydrogen production is established where the required power is generated by a steam Rankine cycle. Solar energy is used for producing steam using parabolic trough solar collectors. The effect of active parameters such as inlet temperature and pressure of steam turbine, efficiencies of turbine and pump, the mass flow rate and outlet temperature of parabolic trough solar collectors, the number of solar collectors in rows, the electric current density, and proton exchange membrane temperature are investigated on the amount of hydrogen production, the net produced power, the cost of produced electricity, the produced hydrogen cost and net profit of the products. The results discovered that the average cost of electricity and the levelized cost of hydrogen per kg H2 decrease by increasing the steam turbine's inlet pressure and temperature. The cost of hydrogen is almost 6 $/kg at 8 MPa inlet pressure of a steam turbine. The profit increases with increasing the values of mass flow rate while the average cost of electricity and the levelized cost of hydrogen per kilogram of H2 decrease when mass flow rate increases. The value of profit increases 43.1% when the outlet temperature of oil in the receiver increases from 313 °C to 333°C.

Energy Transition Planning with High Penetration of Variable Renewable Energy in Developing Countries: The Case of the Bolivian Interconnected Power System

The transition to a more environmentally friendly energy matrix by reducing fossil fuel usage has become one of the most important goals to control climate change. Variable renewable energy sources (VRES) are a central low-carbon alternative. Nevertheless, their variability and low predictability can negatively affect the operation of power systems. On this issue, energy-system-modeling tools have played a fundamental role. When exploring the behavior of the power system against different levels of VRES penetration through them, it is possible to determine certain operational and planning strategies to balance the variations, reduce the operational uncertainty, and increase the supply reliability. In many developing countries, the lack of such proper tools accounting for these effects hinders the deployment potential of VRES. This paper presents a particular energy system model focused on the case of Bolivia. The model manages a database gathered with the relevant parameters of the Bolivian power system currently in operation and those in a portfolio scheduled until 2025. From this database, what-if scenarios are constructed allowing us to expose the Bolivian power system to a set of alternatives regarding VRES penetration and Hydro storage for that same year. The scope is to quantify the VRES integration potential and therefore the capacity of the country to leapfrog to a cleaner and more cost-effective energy system. To that aim, the unit-commitment and dispatch optimization problem are tackled through a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP) that solves the cost objective function within its constraints through the branch-and-cut method for each scenario. The results are evaluated and compared in terms of energy balancing, transmission grid capability, curtailment, thermal generation displacement, hydro storage contribution, and energy generation cost. In the results, it was found that the proposed system can reduce the average electricity cost down to 0.22 EUR/MWh and also reduce up to 2.22 × 106 t (96%) of the CO2 emissions by 2025 with very high penetration of VRES but at the expense of significant amount of curtailment. This is achieved by increasing the VRES installed capacity to 10,142 MW. As a consequence, up to 7.07 TWh (97%) of thermal generation is displaced with up to 8.84 TWh (75%) of load covered by VRES.