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The addition of stochastic renewable resources within modern electricity markets creates a need for more flexible generation assets and for appropriate mechanisms to ensure capacity adequacy. To assess both of these issues, more cross-platform analysis is needed that can evaluate short-term reliability concerns, medium-term dispatch and price concerns, and long-term capacity expansion and market design concerns. We present an integrated modeling framework that combines a long-term investment model, a robust dispatch model of the energy market, a detailed AC network model, a novel quantification for reserves, and a rigorous evaluation of renewable energy resource potentials. We apply the framework to a business-as-usual reference case simulating the phase-out of nuclear capacity in Switzerland and a case with renewable generation targets for Switzerland. We find that the nuclear phase-out leads to a strong increase in Swiss imports. In contrast, additional renewable targets lead to a decrease of these imports. In both cases, the Swiss cross-border lines are found to be the most critical network bottlenecks and in both future cases the increased reliance on imports worsens the severity of these bottlenecks. However, the network and security assessments show no significant challenges associated with a faster and stronger renewable increase in Switzerland. Keywords: integrating energy models, Renewable integration, Electricity markets, Capacity investments, Network security

Introducción

In order to reliably design the planning and operation of large interconnected power systems that can incorporate a high penetration of renewables, it is necessary to have a detailed knowledge of the potential impacts of exogenous factors on individual components within the systems. Previously, the assessment has often been conducted with nodes that are aggregated at the country or regional scale; this makes it impossible to reliably extrapolate the impact of higher penetration of renewables on individual transmission lines and/or power plants within an aggregated node. In order to be able to develop robust power systems this study demonstrates an integrated framework that employs high resolution spatial and temporal, physical modeling of power generation, electricity transmission and electricity demand, across the scale of a continent or country. Using Germany as a test case, an assessment of the impacts of exogenous factors, including local changes in ambient weather conditions, effect of timely implementation of policy, and contingency for scenarios in 2020 are demonstrated. It is shown that with the increased penetration of renewables, while the power production opportunities of conventional power plants are reduced, these power plants are required during periods of low renewables production due to the inherent variability of renewables. While the planned reinforcements in Germany, including high voltage direct current lines, reduce congestion on the grid and alleviate the differentials in power price across the country, on the other hand the reinforcements make the interconnected transmission system more vulnerable as local perturbations have a more widespread impact.

El artículo analiza cambios en el campo intelectual español respecto a las miradas hacia ‘Oriente’ y ‘África’ en el contexto del choque de civilizaciones. El propósito es reconstruir la emergencia de un pensamiento neoconservador después de los atentados del terro­rismo islamista del 11-S y 11-M que se opone a la influencia de la cultura musulmana en ‘Occidente’. El periodismo de Jon Juaristi refleja un cambio del discurso ‘africanista’ que resiste a la supuesta hegemonía cultural del multiculturalismo. La autoconfirmación de ‘Occidente’ se opone a perspectivas poscoloniales como las representa por ejemplo Juan Goytisolo –debates que reformulan la clásica cuestión de la identidad española–. Abstract The article analyses changes in the intellectual field of Spain concerning the views to the ‘East’ and ‘Africa’ in the context of the clash of civilizations. It is the purpose to reconstruct the emergence of a neoconservative ideology after the terrorist bomb attacks of nineleven and in Madrid (2004), which opposes the influence of the Muslim culture in the ‘West’. The journalism of Jon Juaristi reflects a change in the ‘africanist’ discourse, which resists to the alleged cultural hegemony of multiculturalism. The self-affirmation of the ‘West’ counters postcolonial perspectives, which for example represents Juan Goytisolo – debates, which also reformulate the classical problem of the Spanish identity.

The operation of conventional power plants in the 2030 high-renewable energy system of central Europe with high penetration of renewables is simulated in this work. Novel insights are gained in this work, since the generation, transmission and demand models have high geographic resolution, down to scale of individual units, with hourly temporal resolution. It is shown that the increases in the partload efficiency that optimize gas power plants’ financial performance in 2030 are highly dependent on the variability in power production of renewable power plants that are in close proximity to the gas power plants. While coal power plants are also cycled more, an increased baseload efficiency is more beneficial for their financial viability. Thus, there is a need for OEMs to offer a wide range of technology solutions to cover all customers’ needs in electricity markets with high penetrations of renewables. Therefore there is an increased investment risk for OEMs as they strive to match their customers’ future needs.