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Carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage (CCS) is frequently identified as a potential component to achieving a decarbonized power system at least cost; however, power system models frequently lack detailed representation of CO2 transportation, injection, and storage (CTS) infrastructure. In this paper, we present a novel approach to explicitly represent CO2 storage potential and CTS infrastructure costs and constraints within a continental-scale power system capacity expansion model. In addition, we evaluate the sensitivity of the results to assumptions about the future costs and performance of CTS components and carbon capture technologies. We find that the quantity of CO2 captured within the power sector is relatively insensitive to the range of CTS costs explored, suggesting that the cost of CO2 capture retrofits is a more important driver of CCS implementation than the costs of transportation and storage. Finally, we demonstrate that storage and injection costs account for the predominant share of total costs associated with CTS investment and operation, suggesting that pipeline infrastructure costs have limited influence on the competitiveness of CCS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) testing is an approach used for verification and validation in the energy sector. However, there is no comprehensive overview of the application, potential, and challenges of SIL within this sector. Therefore, this paper conducts a thorough scoping review of the existing literature within the scope of SIL and related in-the-loop approaches in the energy sector. A total of 88 full-text articles from four significant databases ACM, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, and Web of Science are analyzed and categorized to map the purpose, methods, architecture, interoperability and protocols, technologies, challenges, and limitations. The results present a grand perspective of in-the-loop across several domains followed by an analysis of SIL in the energy sector. The application domains carry characteristics from complex systems, systems-of-systems, cyber-physical systems, critical systems, real-time systems, and sociotechnical systems. The energy sector and the automotive industry are amongst the most applied domains. Within energy- and electricity systems, hardware-based in-the-loop paradigms are mostly applied for testing low-level signaling, and SIL is used for control strategy testing, optimization, dispatching, and experimentation. The examined SIL architectures have distributed-, real-time, and closed-loop properties, and are constrained by specialized simulation power hardware. Future research should address how to systematically develop SIL testing environments with guiding principles to support application development for the future digitalized energy system.

We perform a global case study to assess the implications of spatial resolution in electricity systems modelling. The global model PLEXOS-World is used to optimize the long-term capacity expansion and short-term operation of a global net-zero electricity system under alternative spatial resolution assumptions. We find that spatial resolution assumptions have a large influence on electricity system operational and planning decisions regarding the integration of variable renewables as well as the utilization of transmission infrastructure and other flexibility providers. Furthermore, challenges with respect to spatial aggregation arise with respect to data accessibility and spatial aggregation methods, and there are trade-offs between increasing spatial resolution and computational performance. A question-based framework is provided that can assist modellers in selecting the appropriate spatial extent and resolution.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage (CCS) is frequently identified as a potential component to achieving a decarbonized power system at least cost; however, power system models frequently lack detailed representation of CO2 transportation, injection, and storage (CTS) infrastructure. In this paper, we present a novel approach to explicitly represent CO2 storage potential and CTS infrastructure costs and constraints within a continental-scale power system capacity expansion model. In addition, we evaluate the sensitivity of the results to assumptions about the future costs and performance of CTS components and carbon capture technologies. We find that the quantity of CO2 captured within the power sector is relatively insensitive to the range of CTS costs explored, suggesting that the cost of CO2 capture retrofits is a more important driver of CCS implementation than the costs of transportation and storage. Finally, we demonstrate that storage and injection costs account for the predominant share of total costs associated with CTS investment and operation, suggesting that pipeline infrastructure costs have limited influence on the competitiveness of CCS.

Electricity and water systems are inextricably linked through water demands for energy generation, and through energy demands for using, moving, and treating water and wastewater. Climate change may stress these interdependencies, together referred to as the energy-water nexus, by reducing water availability for hydropower generation and by increasing irrigation and electricity demand for groundwater pumping, among other feedbacks. Further, many climate adaptation measures to augment water supplies - such as water recycling and desalination - are energy-intensive. However, water and electricity system climate vulnerabilities and adaptations are often studied in isolation, without considering how multiple interactive risks may compound. This paper reviews the fragmented literature and develops a generalized framework for understanding these implications of climate change on the energy-water nexus. We apply this framework in a case study to quantify end-century direct climate impacts on California's water and electricity resources and estimate the magnitude of the indirect cross-sectoral feedback of electricity demand from various water adaptation strategies. Our results show that increased space cooling demand and decreased hydropower generation are the most significant direct climate change impacts on California's electricity sector by end-century. In California's water sector, climate change impacts directly on surface water availability exceed demand changes, but have considerable uncertainty, both in direction and magnitude. Additionally, we find that the energy demands of water sector climate adaptations could significantly affect California's future electricity system needs. If the worst-case water shortage occurs under climate change, water-conserving adaptation measures can provide large energy savings co-benefits, but other energy-intensive water adaptations may double the direct impacts of climate change on the state's electricity resource requirement. These results highlight the value of coordinated adaptation planning between the energy and water sectors to achieve mutually beneficial solutions for climate resilience.

Abstract Different governmental institutions are publishing more and more visions, strategies, or proposed regulations related to artificial intelligence. This paper analyses how these visions or proposed regulations are put into practice. To this end, the proposed European Union Artificial Intelligence Act, the Dutch artificial intelligence strategy and the proposed new Dutch energy law are compared. Even though the new Dutch energy law was created parallel and published after the European Union Artificial Intelligence Act, it does not take into account the use of artificial intelligence in the electricity actor. Similarly, the focus points of the Dutch artificial intelligence strategy are ignored in the new Dutch energy law. Two issues emerge from this. First, it is questionable if and how visions, strategies and proposed regulations related to AI are translated into different sectors and related practices. Second, as the different acts and proposed regulations do not communicate or overlap, gaps develop between the different policies. It is unclear which institutions will fill in these gaps.

Electricity and water systems are inextricably linked through water demands for energy generation, and through energy demands for using, moving, and treating water and wastewater. Climate change may stress these interdependencies, together referred to as the energy-water nexus, by reducing water availability for hydropower generation and by increasing irrigation and electricity demand for groundwater pumping, among other feedbacks. Further, many climate adaptation measures to augment water supplies - such as water recycling and desalination - are energy-intensive. However, water and electricity system climate vulnerabilities and adaptations are often studied in isolation, without considering how multiple interactive risks may compound. This paper reviews the fragmented literature and develops a generalized framework for understanding these implications of climate change on the energy-water nexus. We apply this framework in a case study to quantify end-century direct climate impacts on California's water and electricity resources and estimate the magnitude of the indirect cross-sectoral feedback of electricity demand from various water adaptation strategies. Our results show that increased space cooling demand and decreased hydropower generation are the most significant direct climate change impacts on California's electricity sector by end-century. In California's water sector, climate change impacts directly on surface water availability exceed demand changes, but have considerable uncertainty, both in direction and magnitude. Additionally, we find that the energy demands of water sector climate adaptations could significantly affect California's future electricity system needs. If the worst-case water shortage occurs under climate change, water-conserving adaptation measures can provide large energy savings co-benefits, but other energy-intensive water adaptations may double the direct impacts of climate change on the state's electricity resource requirement. These results highlight the value of coordinated adaptation planning between the energy and water sectors to achieve mutually beneficial solutions for climate resilience.

Different governmental institutions are publishing more and more visions, strategies, or proposed regulations related to artificial intelligence. This paper analyses how these visions or proposed regulations are put into practice. To this end, the proposed European Union Artificial Intelligence Act, the Dutch artificial intelligence strategy and the proposed new Dutch energy law are compared. Even though the new Dutch energy law was created parallel and published after the European Union Artificial Intelligence Act, it does not take into account the use of artificial intelligence in the electricity actor. Similarly, the focus points of the Dutch artificial intelligence strategy are ignored in the new Dutch energy law. Two issues emerge from this. First, it is questionable if and how visions, strategies and proposed regulations related to AI are translated into different sectors and related practices. Second, as the different acts and proposed regulations do not communicate or overlap, gaps develop between the different policies. It is unclear which institutions will fill in these gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driven by the need for decarbonizing energy carriers across sectors, and the increasing availability of low-cost renewable electricity generation future energy systems will see a rise of power-to-gas technology. For example, hydrogen and its derivates can make enable the usage of carbon-neutral electricity for hard-to abate industry sectors and serve as long-term seasonal storage. Given recent drafts of ambitious political hydrogen strategies around the world, the question arises which power-to-gas configurations provide the highest value for money from a power system perspective. This work provides a flexible framework to compare the performance of current power-to-gas sites all over the world. Power-to-gas technologies are assessed with a benchmarking framework based on Composite Indicators to compare the system value of existing conversion technologies, plant sizes, cost structures, and configurations. Our analysis confirms recent research that suggests that plant performance is higher for larger projects and improves as projects move from research stage over pilot stage to commercial stage. Our findings inform policy makers and electricity system planners who aim to identify the economically and technically most promising solutions for investment. • A novel, flexible framework to assess the performance of power-to-gas plants. • Benchmarking 16 power-to-gas plants with Composite Indicators. • Plant performances are differentiated for three power-to-gas applications. • Plant performance is higher for larger projects and AEC/SOEC electrolysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying the sensitivity of future power systems to climate extremes must consider the concurrent effects of changing climate and evolving power systems. We investigated the sensitivity of a Western U.S. power system to isolated and combined heat and drought when it has low (5%) and moderate (31%) variable renewable energy shares, representing historic and future systems. We used an electricity operational model combined with a model of historically extreme drought (for hydropower and freshwater‐reliant thermoelectric generators) over the Western U.S. and a synthetic, regionally extreme heat event in Southern California (for thermoelectric generators and electricity load). We found that the drought has the highest impact on summertime production cost (+10% to +12%), while temperature‐based deratings have minimal effect (at most +1%). The Southern California heat wave scenario impacting load increases summertime regional net imports to Southern California by 10–14%, while the drought decreases them by 6–12%. Combined heat and drought conditions have a moderate effect on imports to Southern California (−2%) in the historic system and a stronger effect (+8%) in the future system. Southern California dependence on other regions decreases in the summertime with the moderate increase in variable renewable energy (−34% imports), but hourly peak regional imports are maintained under those infrastructure changes. By combining synthetic and historically driven conditions to test two infrastructures, we consolidate the importance of considering compounded heat wave and drought in planning studies and suggest that region‐to‐region energy transfers during peak periods are key to optimal operations under climate extremes. Key Points: Contemporary and future Western U.S. power grids are evaluated with stochastic and historically based compound climate extreme scenariosDrought has most impact on simulated generation mix and production cost; load changes under heat have more impact on regional power flowTotal summer regional power flows decrease in the future power system simulations, but power flows remain critical during peak hours [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-quality data for the greenhouse gas and air pollution emissions associated with electricity generation and consumption are increasingly important to enable effective and targeted action to decarbonize the electric grid and to inform research in a range of academic disciplines including environmental economics, lifecycle assessment, and environmental health. To inform the broadest range of use cases, such data should ideally have a high temporal and spatial resolution, be available in as close to real-time as possible, represent the complete power sector, use the highest-quality measured data, have complete historical coverage, and represent both generated and consumed emissions. To date, no published datasets have achieved all of these characteristics. This work is the first to publish a comprehensive, plant-level dataset of hourly-resolution generation, fuel consumption, and direct CO _2 , NOx, and SO _2 emissions for the entire U.S. power sector. This data is published as part of the public and open-source Open Grid Emissions Initiative, which also includes hourly, consumption-based emissions intensities for every grid balancing area in the country. Using insights generated by this new dataset, this paper also interrogates how several of the assumptions implicit in the use of existing power sector emissions datasets may under-count or misrepresent the climate and health impacts of air emissions from the U.S. power sector. We envision the Initiative becoming a central repository of, and hub of activity for addressing open research questions related to power sector emissions data, and the go-to source for high-quality, high-resolution data for future research on grid emissions.

We perform a global case study to assess the implications of spatial resolution in electricity systems modelling. The global model PLEXOS-World is used to optimize the long-term capacity expansion and short-term operation of a global net-zero electricity system under alternative spatial resolution assumptions. We find that spatial resolution assumptions have a large influence on electricity system operational and planning decisions regarding the integration of variable renewables as well as the utilization of transmission infrastructure and other flexibility providers. Furthermore, challenges with respect to spatial aggregation arise with respect to data accessibility and spatial aggregation methods, and there are trade-offs between increasing spatial resolution and computational performance. A question-based framework is provided that can assist modellers in selecting the appropriate spatial extent and resolution. • A global case study is performed on spatial resolution in electricity systems modelling. • Insights are provided on the implications of spatial data aggregation approaches. • We find that spatial resolution has a large influence on integration of renewables. • The magnitude of spatial resolution impacts is geographically dependent. • A framework is provided that can assist modelers with spatial resolution decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring that electricity systems maintain reliable power supplies is critical to sustaining political support for the low-carbon energy transition. Therefore, it is crucial to analyze the recent electricity disruptions in China and evaluate the government's response. Since 2020, China has faced three unprecedented power outage affecting multiple provinces for weeks. This study investigates the interplay of various factors contributing to China's power crisis and examines the government's policies aimed at addressing immediate issues while advancing broader reforms. Key policy measures involve adjusting the electricity market to allow greater price fluctuations for coal-fired electricity and opening the wholesale market to industrial and commercial users. While this reform is expected to boost market competitiveness, the present market structure falls short of what is likely needed to ensure that power sector dispatch, pricing, and investment can work together to ensure reliable electricity supply in the context of China's transition towards carbon neutrality. To create an advanced, resilient, and flexible renewable energy grid, more intricate reforms across the electricity system, market, regulatory framework, and institutions will be essential. [Display omitted] • Power reliability is critical to keeping political support for energy transition. • A combination of factors led to power curtailments in China in recent times. • Policy responses to address China's power crisis are examined. • Implications of these policy changes are assessed. • An integrated solution framework is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The decarbonization of the Portuguese electricity system, currently around 50% renewable-based, is undergoing with the commitment to reach 60% of renewable electricity share by 2020. Because of this, the phase-out of the two remaining coal-fired power plants has been receiving close attention, as they currently contribute to about one-fifth of the total electricity generation and two-thirds of the CO 2 emissions in the power sector. This work assesses the impact of eliminating coal-fired generation from the Portuguese electricity system without replacing it, and explores a cleaner supply alternative achievable before 2025. Coal phase-out without substitution results in slightly increased CO 2 emissions for the atmosphere if one assumes that the required additional imports are of carbon-intensive electricity, leading to the need of adding clean power capacity to the system. It is shown that coal plants could be replaced by about 8 GW of photovoltaics if accompanied by a modest increase in the already existing hydro pump capacity. In this case, the renewable electricity share increases to 77%, and carbon footprint decreases by 56%. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • Coal power plants still supply a fifth of the Portuguese electricity demand. • Coal power plants phase-out is tested, considering alternative supply sources. • Coal phase-out slightly increases CO 2 emissions assuming carbon intensive imports. • Photovoltaics coupled with hydro pump can replace coal (−56% of CO 2 emissions). • Photovoltaics with storage increases renewable electricity share from 50 to 77%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Globally, electricity systems are responsible for two-thirds of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This area has become one of the main focuses for a wide range of scientific communities, and a large number of articles have been published that reported GHG emissions from the electricity sector using different approaches. Even though some review articles have been published on particular GHG emissions approaches, such as life cycle assessment (LCA), studies that investigated overall approaches are much rarer. A scoping review of these GHG emissions accounting approaches has thus been conducted in this study to explore their limitations and indicate possible future scope. From the review, it was found that the majority of the studies considered the LCA approach to investigate GHG emissions from electricity systems. Although the time-varying carbon intensity approach has potential features, it has received less attention. Furthermore, this review has highlighted some issues that need to be addressed by any new or existing approach that would deal with GHG emissions accounting in the near future. In addition, this review would be helpful for policymakers and electricity authorities when selecting appropriate approaches in accounting GHG emissions from the electricity system. Highlights • A review of available GHG emissions accounting methods in electricity systems. • Explored the limitations and future research scope in GHG emissions accounting. • Supports policymaking to select proper approach in accounting GHG emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The aim of this research is to provide a comprehensive analysis framework for fostering the transition of electricity systems towards sustainability and energy security. In this sense, we first provide a critical taxonomy of extant studies, as these are mapped on strategic, tactical and operational levels of the hierarchical decision-making process. Sustainability constituents along with the considered supply or demand viewpoints are also mapped. Following, we recognize and classify the major elaborated performance metrics used to monitor and assess the sustainable performance of electricity systems. We then integrate the recognized decision-making process with the physical systems' perspective to demonstrate the complex and dynamic nature of the electricity systems. Our critical analysis reveals that sustainability and energy security are rapidly evolving research fields; however, the often myopic perspective of the reviewed studies hinders the effective evaluation and analysis of renewable energy systems. Our analysis further allows for the identification of gaps and overlaps in literature, as well as of future research areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to adequate and reliable electricity is paramount for the adaptation and resilience of typhoon-prone coastal communities, particularly in the face of intensifying challenges posed by climate change. Climate-related extreme weather events, such as typhoons and their consequent flooding and storm surges, exert significant pressure on electricity systems in these vulnerable regions, affecting every aspect from generation to transmission, distribution, and end-user utilization. Therefore, urgent action is required to fortify these communities with electric systems that are resilient enough to withstand such meteorological extremes. This review paper examines the far-reaching impacts of extreme weather events on electricity systems and showcases illuminating case studies that highlight innovative strategies to bolster these systems against such extremes. The review emphasizes the pivotal role of meticulous energy planning, strong support from local governments, and the significance of infrastructure hardening in building resilient energy systems. Future research opportunities exist in integrating renewable energy, engaging community members, assessing climate risks, and cross-sectoral resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapidly changing economics, customer preferences, and policy to address climate change and local environmental pollutants have driven increased deployment of a wide range of distributed energy resources in the U.S. electricity system. Distributed energy resources have enabled an expanded role for energy consumers and non-utility third parties to reshape system costs, drawing renewed attention to the potential of reforming electricity rate design based on the further application of cost-causal principals to improve overall system fairness and efficiency. One mechanism to move toward greater application of cost-causal rate design is dynamic pricing, which varies electricity prices across time and location to reflect costs of providing electricity to consumers under specific market conditions and grid operation conditions. While dynamic electricity pricing has penetrated some markets, and it has not been widely implemented, particularly for residential consumers. In this review article, we provide a brief summary of electricity rate design, including the possibility of introducing dynamic prices, and explain why dynamic prices are more reflective of the short-run marginal costs of electricity supply than volumetric rates. We then explore the barriers to the widespread adoption of residential dynamic pricing, emphasizing technical, economic, and political challenges. Our assessment reflects the ability of dynamic prices to engender more equitable and efficient outcomes by achieving the goal of cost-causality, and we argue that a move toward more dynamic pricing can constitute a welfare improvement over volumetric rates. However, dynamic pricing does not completely address the full set of challenges associated with rate design and, alone, is unlikely to enable the full recovery of fixed costs and the fair attribution of the positive and negative externalities of electricity provision. Therefore, electricity rate design requires tradeoffs, making it as much an art as a science. This analysis synthesizes literature across multiple fields and suggests avenues for further research.

Electricity and water systems are inextricably linked through water demands for energy generation, and through energy demands for using, moving, and treating water and wastewater. Climate change may stress these interdependencies, together referred to as the energy-water nexus, by reducing water availability for hydropower generation and by increasing irrigation and electricity demand for groundwater pumping, among other feedbacks. Further, many climate adaptation measures to augment water supplies—such as water recycling and desalination—are energy-intensive. However, water and electricity system climate vulnerabilities and adaptations are often studied in isolation, without considering how multiple interactive risks may compound. This paper reviews the fragmented literature and develops a generalized framework for understanding these implications of climate change on the energy-water nexus. We apply this framework in a case study to quantify end-century direct climate impacts on California’s water and electricity resources and estimate the magnitude of the indirect cross-sectoral feedback of electricity demand from various water adaptation strategies. Our results show that increased space cooling demand and decreased hydropower generation are the most significant direct climate change impacts on California’s electricity sector by end-century. In California’s water sector, climate change impacts directly on surface water availability exceed demand changes, but have considerable uncertainty, both in direction and magnitude. Additionally, we find that the energy demands of water sector climate adaptations could significantly affect California’s future electricity system needs. If the worst-case water shortage occurs under climate change, water-conserving adaptation measures can provide large energy savings co-benefits, but other energy-intensive water adaptations may double the direct impacts of climate change on the state’s electricity resource requirement. These results highlight the value of coordinated adaptation planning between the energy and water sectors to achieve mutually beneficial solutions for climate resilience.

There is a growing body of research into the potential security risks and trade-offs which may emerge over the long-term development of energy systems. As part of this body of research, this paper aims to develop and demonstrate a set of indicators for assessing the security of long-term national electricity scenarios. This paper extends the empirical work of existing frameworks by including reliability and cost parameters alongside a range of other important aspects of energy security such as diversity, trade and acceptability, and by using both qualitative and quantitative indicators without aggregation in order to identify trade-offs. This paper uses the indicators to assess the energy security implications of three plausible long-term scenarios for the UK electricity system. The results indicate that a major risk may be experienced by a lack of flexible, responsive supply capacity in low-carbon electricity pathways. Reducing overall energy demand is found to be the most beneficial policy for improving energy security in terms of generating benefits in multiple dimensions. The paper finds that energy security is often conceptualised as the avoidance of causes of insecurity (such as insecure fuel imports), but that an equally important aspect of security lies in maximising responses to insecurity, for example by increasing the flexibility and responsiveness of both supply and demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors present a graph‐based computational framework that facilitates the construction, instantiation, and analysis of large‐scale optimisation and simulation applications of coupled infrastructure networks. The framework integrates the optimisation modelling package PLASMO and the simulation package DMNetwork (built around PETSc). These tools use a common graph‐based modelling abstraction that enables them to achieve compatibility between interfaces and data structures and facilitates the modular creation and exchange of component models. The authors also describe how to embed these tools within complex computational workflows using SWIFT, which is a tool that facilitates parallel execution of multiple simulation runs and management of input and output data. Finally, the authors discuss how to use these capabilities to target coupled natural gas and electricity systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to investigate the ability of electricity system models to provide scenario based insights for policy purposes. A framework is built from a review of existing studies of model characteristics and their linkages to model scenario types, which are linked to the purpose of policy problem analyses. The framework can be used as a tool to structure the examination of electricity system models, and guide electricity system model selection and enhancement in light of policy problem driven analyses. An illustration of the framework is presented by a review of German electricity model scenario studies. The review shows that current models are used for the policy purpose of indicator assessment and instrument comparison by quantification of indicators such as monetary or pollution impacts. However, they are not suitable to provide the means for option reduction, problem exploration, and political or societal paradigm change exploration, as the endogenous model structure for these is missing. A particular lack of endogenous treatment was found for renewable technology capacity change and policies, learning and productivity growth based technological change, socio-political-technical interactions, and limited demonstrated use of uncertainty treatment techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing importance of links between the social and technical dimensions of the electricity infrastructure mean that many research problems cannot be effectively addressed without joint consideration of social and technical dynamics. This paper motivates the need for and introduces a tool to facilitate the development of linked social and technical models of electric power systems. The tool, called MatpowerConnect, enables the runtime linkage of Netlogo -- an oft-used modelling platform in the social simulation domain -- with Matpower -- a common power flow simulation package in the power systems domain. MatpowerConnect opens up new modelling possibilities for social simulation researchers active in the study of electricity systems. It offers ease of use coupled with a high degree of realism with which electricity infrastructure functionality is captured. We describe the development and use of two demonstration models using MatpowerConnect. These models illustrate two types of problems and system scales that can be addressed. In the first model we explore the consequences of actors' adaptive strategies on the performance of a small-scale power system. In the second model we simulate the effects of different regulatory regimes on network investment in a supra-national electricity transmission system to explore the long-term consequences for network development and social welfare. In both cases, the extension enables capturing a critical functionality of electric power systems, while allowing model development efforts to focus on social simulation aspects. Resources for using the extension are provided in conjunction with this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In OECD countries, many overlapping energy and environmental policy instruments are targeting the various stakeholders in the electricity supply chain (producers, transmission and distribution companies and various consumers). Although synergies between different policy instruments exist, e.g. reducing acidification and climate change by reducing energy consumption, there are also measures whose effects counter each other. Such counter effects arise not only within different environmental policy instruments but also with energy policy instruments. This paper surveys the overlaps in the policy instruments that target the European Union electricity system and characterizes their interactions. A framework for further assessment and analysis of overlaps and co-effects between policy instruments is presented. The development of policies and their implementation using specific instruments may then be better aligned. A brief discussion on how trade-offs can be structured is made, as well as some notes on issues to be considered towards policy integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Renewable energy portfolio standards have created a large increase in the amount of renewable electricity production, and one technology that has benefited greatly from these standards is wind power. The uncertainty inherent in wind electricity production dictates that additional amounts of conventional generation resources be kept in reserve, should wind electricity output suddenly dip. The introduction of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles into the transportation fleet presents an possible solution to this problem through the concept of vehicle-to-grid power. The ability of vehicle-to-grid power systems to help solve the variability and uncertainty issuess in systems with large amounts of wind power capacity is examined through a multiparadigm simulation model. The problem is examined from the perspectives of three different stakeholders: policy makers, the electricity system operator and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle owners. Additionally, a preliminary economic analysis of the technology is performed, and a comparison made with generation technologies that perform similar functions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The modern world energy system is highly complex and interconnected and the effects of energy policies may have unintended consequences. Modeling and analysis tools can therefore be crucial to gaining insight into the interactions between system components and formulating policies that will shape the future energy system. We present in this work a multi-paradigm modeling framework that allows for the continual adjustment and refinement of energy system models as the understanding of the system under study increases. This flexible and open framework allows for the consideration of different levels of model aggregation, timescales and geographic considerations within the same model through the use of different modeling formalisms. We also present a case study of the combined California natural gas and electricity systems that illustrates how the framework may be used to account for the significant uncertainty that exists within the system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Both parametric and structural differences exist in capacity expansion models. • We used simple cases to eliminate all parametric uncertainty in benchmarking effort. • We identified structural differences that were previously assumed to be unimportant. • We introduce an open-source test dataset for the community to use and build on. • Community-wide benchmarking increases transparency among capacity expansion models. Electric sector capacity expansion models are widely used by academic, government, and industry researchers for policy analysis and planning. Many models overlap in their capabilities, spatial and temporal resolutions, and research purposes, but yield diverse results due to both parametric and structural differences. Previous work has attempted to identify some differences among commonly used capacity expansion models but has been unable to disentangle parametric from structural uncertainty. Here, we present a model benchmarking effort using highly simplified scenarios applied to four open-source models of the U.S. electric sector. We eliminate all parametric uncertainty through using a common dataset and leave only structural differences. We demonstrate how a systematic model comparison process allows us to pinpoint specific and important structural differences among our models, including specification of technologies as baseload or load following generation, battery state-of-charge at the beginning and end of a modeled period, application of battery roundtrip efficiency, treatment of discount rates, formulation of model end effects, and digit precision of input parameters. Our results show that such a process can be effective for improving consistency across models and building model confidence, substantiating specific modeling choices, reporting uncertainties, and identifying areas for further research and development. We also introduce an open-source test dataset that the modeling community can use for unit testing and build on for benchmarking exercises of more complex models. A community benchmarking effort can increase collaboration among energy modelers and provide transparency regarding the energy transition and energy challenges, for other stakeholders such as policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]