Cost-Effective Increase of Photovoltaic Electricity Feed-In on Congested Transmission Lines: A Case Study of The Netherlands

• Main Authors: Maaike Braat, Odysseas Tsafarakis, Ioannis Lampropoulos, Joris Besseling, Wilfried G. J. H. M. van Sark
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-05-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: congestion; transmission grid; solar energy curtailment; network/PV capacity optimisation; PV plant/system design; battery
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/10/2868

In many areas in the world, the high voltage (HV) electricity grid is saturated, which makes it difficult to accommodate additional solar photovoltaic (PV) systems connection requests. In this paper, different scenarios to increase the installed PV capacity in a saturated grid are assessed on the basis of the net present value (NPV). The developed scenarios compare an increase of grid capacity, PV system azimuth variation, curtailment, and battery storage. For each scenario the net present value (NPV) is assessed using an optimization model as a function of the overbuild capacity factor, which is defined as the relative amount of PV capacity added beyond the available capacity. The scenarios are applied on a case study of the Netherlands, and the analysis shows that, by optimising curtailment, a PV system’s capacity can be increased to 120% overbuild capacity. For larger overbuild capacity investments in the electricity-grid are preferred when these costs are taken into account. However, the optimum NPV lies at 40% overbuild, thus the societal and NPV optimum are not always aligned. Furthermore, the use of a battery system as an alternative to an infrastructure upgrade was not found to be a cost-effective solution. Thus, applying curtailment could be cost-efficient to a certain extent to allow for additional PV capacity to be connected to a saturated grid. Furthermore, the inverter size compared to the installed PV capacity should be significantly reduced. For a connection request that exceeds 120% overbuild increasing network capacity should be considered.