Value of flexibility in the context of European electricity market coupling with extreme technological, regulatory and social developments

schriftzug The aim of our project eXtremOS (XOS) is to develop and apply methods, which allow us to analyze the value of flexibility in the context of extreme energy system developments. Hereby, the focus lies on the role and importance of European electricity market coupling, in scenarios with extreme technological, regulatory and social developments. We are tackling these issues in cooperation with FfE e. V., the Institute of Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (ITAS), the Chairs of Energy Economics and Application Technology (IfE) and Renewable and Sustainable Energy Systems (ENS) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Agora Energiewende, as well as nine industry partners. The project started on the 1^st of January 2018 and has a duration of three years.

Project content

FfE GmbH and FfE e.V share the project lead in XOS. While a variety of work packages are being addressed in close cooperation with all partners, the FfE GmbH is responsible for content with respect to the industry sector, the modelling of the gas market and business models.

Industry: Due to its high share of total final energy consumption in the EU (approx. 27 % in 2014), disruptive events with an impact on the industry sector can strongly impact the European energy system. For example, scenarios that result in an increase in the German electricity price, could trigger the migration of industrial loads to neighboring countries. This in turn, can significantly affect the future composition of the energy system, especially in scenarios where climate targets are met. To enable the mapping of such scenarios on the industry sector within eXtremOS and to be able to quantify the repercussions on the energy system, FfE GmbH is developing a European industry sector model (SmInd Europe).

Gas market: In XOS, the gas market model MINGA is expanded, to allow for the analysis of the effects of new production conditions on the gas market. Hereby, the focus lies creating on new modelling components for mapping biogas and power-to-gas feed-in. In particular, the question to what extent hydrogen can be fed into the existing natural gas grid and the restrictions associated with modelling this process are being investigated.

Business models: Another core aspect in XOS is analyzing the effects of extreme scenarios on existing business models of stakeholders in the energy transition. In a first step, we will map the different types of existing business models, for stakeholders who supply or demand flexibility. Then, the effects of extreme scenarios on these business models are identified. In addition, we examine whether new business models result from individual extreme developments.

For further information on the project click here.

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