Validity ranges of locational marginal emission factors for the environmental assessment of electric load shifting

B. Nilges, A. Haese, C. Reinert and N. von der Assen

Applied Energy, 2025, vol. 380, issue C, No S030626192402453X

Abstract: The integration of volatile renewable energies into electric power systems requires the synchronization of electricity supply and demand through load shifting by demand-side management and electrical storage. Although the environmental impacts of load shifting are widely discussed in the literature, there is only limited research on location-specific differences that are inherent in large-scale electric power systems. For a location-specific environmental assessment, locational marginal emission factors (MEFs) can be determined in power flow models. However, the locational MEFs are derived for an infinitesimal change in load and, thus, are not necessarily applicable for the assessment of large load shifts. In this paper, we provide validity ranges for the locational MEFs to determine for which load changes the MEFs are exact. We analyze the locational MEFs and the validity ranges on a model of the German electric power system. Consistent with literature, the results show that the locational MEFs can vary between −144 gCO2/kWh and 2620 gCO2/kWh in the case of severe grid congestion. However, we show that validity ranges of the locational MEFs are rather small with values of mostly around 5 MW and in some cases even reach zero. Therefore, we conclude that while locational MEFs are important for the location-specific assessment of load shifting, the relatively small validity ranges of locational MEFs must also be considered when large load shifts are evaluated.

Keywords: Demand-side management; Electrical storage; Electric power system; Environmental assessment; Greenhouse gas emissions; Energy system optimization model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.125069

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