Long Term Impact of Grid Level Energy Storage on Renewable Energy Penetration and Emissions in the Chilean Electric System

Serguey A. Maximov, Gareth P. Harrison and Daniel Friedrich
Additional contact information
Serguey A. Maximov: Institute for Energy Systems, School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3DW, UK
Gareth P. Harrison: Institute for Energy Systems, School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3DW, UK
Daniel Friedrich: Institute for Energy Systems, School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3DW, UK

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-19

Abstract: Chile has abundant solar and wind resources and renewable generation is becoming competitive with fossil fuel generation. However, due to renewable resource variability their large-scale integration into the electricity grid is not trivial. This study evaluates the long-term impact of grid level energy storage, specifically Pumped Thermal Energy Storage (PTES), on the penetration of solar and wind energies and on CO 2 emissions reduction in Chile. A cost based linear optimization model of the Chilean electricity system is developed and used to analyse and optimize different renewable generation, transmission and energy storage scenarios until 2050. For the base scenario of decommissioning ageing coal plants and no new coal and large hydro generation, the generation gap is filled by solar photovoltaic (PV), concentrated solar power (CSP) and flexible gas generation with the associated drop of 78% in the CO 2 emission factor. The integration of on-grid 8h capacity storage increases the solar PV fraction which leads to a 6% reduction in operation and investment costs by 2050. However, this does not necessarily lead to further reductions in the long term emissions. Thus, it is crucial to consider all aspects of the energy system when planning the transition to a low carbon electricity system.

Keywords: linear optimization; pumped thermal energy storage; grid energy storage; renewable integration; Chile (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/6/1070/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/6/1070/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:6:p:1070-:d:215509

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().