Energy Systems Integration Platform - Long term energy scenario analysis with chemical storage option

Integration of large quantity of renewable (RES) in the Swiss energy system requires structural changes. Although structural change in the energy system is almost certain to occur, the direction and pace of change is unclear and will be affected by uncertain factors related to technology breakthroughs in the foreseeable future, along with policy and market developments. Technological change in one sector of the energy system can influence the choice of technology of other sectors, including the energy production and conversion infrastructures. We have developed the Swiss TIMES Energy system Model (STEM), which portrays the entire energy system from primary energy resources to end use energy service demands of the entire economy, through fuel processing/conversions and end-use technologies. STEM identifies the least-cost combination of investment and operation levels of all the interconnected system elements. For assessing some of the uncertainties specific to storage needs for integration of renewables, we develop new module on power to gas (P2G) to examine role of electricity storage across the whole energy system. The P2G module consists of new pathways to include technologies such as electrolyser, methanation process and electricity and hydrogen storage technologies, etc. With this P2G module development, we will analyse a set of long term energy scenarios to look at the aspects under which selected set of technologies contributes to integrate large quantity of renewable electricity. The foci of the scenario analysis will be on electricity demand (e.g. e-mobility), alternative storage options and electricity supply variation (e.g. centralised gas power plant vs. renewable and/or imports).

For more information see ESI Platform Project