• Energy Research

The quality of electricity system modelling heavily depends on the input data used. Although a lot of data is publicly available, it is often dispersed, tedious to process and partly contains errors. We argue that a central provision of input data for modelling has the character of a public good: it reduces overall societal costs for quantitative energy research as redundant work is avoided, and it improves transparency and reproducibility in electricity system modelling. This paper describes the Open Power System Data platform that aims at realising the efficiency and quality gains of centralised data provision by collecting, checking, processing, aggregating, documenting and publishing data required by most modellers. We conclude that the platform can provide substantial benefits to energy system analysis by raising efficiency of data pre-processing, providing a method for making data pre-processing for energy system modelling traceable, flexible and reproducible and improving the quality of original data published by data providers. This is the postprint version of the article

Contracts for differences are widely seen as a cornerstone of Europe's future electricity market design. This paper is about designing such contracts. We identify the dispatch and investment distortions that conventional CfDs cause, the patches used to overcome these shortcomings, and the problems these fixes introduce. We then propose an alternative contract we call “financial” CfD. This hybrid between conventional CfDs and forward contracts mitigates revenue risk to a substantial degree while providing undistorted incentives. Like conventional CfDs, it is long-term and tailored to technology-specific (wind, solar, nuclear) generation patterns but, like forwards, decouples payments from actual generation. The proposed contract mitigates volume risk and avoids margin calls by accepting physical assets as collateral.

The global energy system is undergoing a major transition, and in energy planning and decision-making across governments, industry and academia, models play a crucial role. Because of their policy relevance and contested nature, the transparency and open availability of energy models and data are of particular importance. Here we provide a practical how-to guide based on the collective experience of members of the Open Energy Modelling Initiative (Openmod). We discuss key steps to consider when opening code and data, including determining intellectual property ownership, choosing a licence and appropriate modelling languages, distributing code and data, and providing support and building communities. After illustrating these decisions with examples and lessons learned from the community, we conclude that even though individual researchers' choices are important, institutional changes are still also necessary for more openness and transparency in energy research. 9 pages, 1 figure

Solar photovoltaic (PV) is the most rapidly expanding renewable resource worldwide. Yet, its full potential may be hindered by mismatches with market demand and correlated production profiles. In this research, we explore a case study of innovative PV placements in alpine regions using two, soft-linked optimization models of Switzerland's electricity system. Using Swissmod, an electricity dispatch and load-flow model, and OREES, an electricity system model employing evolution strategy to optimize PV placement, we simulate market prices of optimized PV placements given multiple years of weather data, various CO2 prices, and considering future electricity infrastructure developments across Europe. Mountain placements result in higher market value and less required area relative to lower-altitude PV placement strategies. The higher market value is driven by better alignment with demand, particularly during winter when demand is highest. We found that optimized alpine placements offer revenues of panel capacity (EUR/kW/year) that are on average 20% higher than revenues from urban PV installations. Furthermore, the Swiss mountains could host more than 1 GW of capacity with even greater revenues (33%). Alpine PV installations, with their higher market values and increased value factors, can potentially be very profitable investments and are also valuable from a system perspective. Renewable Energy, 186 ISSN:0960-1481 ISSN:1879-0682

Summary The aim of this paper is to evaluate the role of the Swiss electricity transmission system and the planned network extensions in the context of Central European electricity market developments and thereby the Swiss and European energy transitions. In addition, we conduct a sensitivity analysis of delayed grid investments for Swiss and European network projects, respectively. By utilizing a numerical model representation of the Swiss electricity market Swissmod we derive a quantification of the different effects and developments up to 2050. In summary, the Central European market will largely be influenced by the significant increase in intermittent renewable generation. Whereas current power flow patterns are mostly from the Northern markets towards Italy using Switzerland as a transit hub, the large share of solar capacities in 2050 will lead to a high variability on shorter timeframes. While Switzerland will remain a transit hub, the import and export flows will vary with season and daytime. The potential costs and system impacts due to delayed network investments are rather modest in comparison to the overall generation costs but can nevertheless sum to 700 million per year highlighting the importance of network extension to improve cross-regional energy exchange.

Hydropower represents an important pillar of electricity systems in many countries. It not only plays an important role in mitigating climate change, but is also subject to climate-change impacts. In this paper, we use the Swiss electricity market model Swissmod to study the effects of changes in water availability due to climate change on Swiss hydropower. Swissmod is an electricity dispatch model with a plant-level representation of 96% of Swiss hydropower plants and their interrelations within cascade structures. Using this detailed model in combination with spatially disaggregated climate-change runoff projections for Switzerland, we show that climate change has ambiguous impacts on hydropower and on the overall electricity system. Electricity prices and overall system costs increase under dry conditions and decrease under average or wet conditions. While the change of seasonal patterns, with a shift to higher winter runoff, has positive impacts, the overall yearly inflow varies under hydrological conditions. While average and wet years yield an increase in inflows and revenues, dry years become drier, resulting in the opposite effect. Even though different in magnitude, the direction of impacts persists when applying the same changes in inflows to the 2050 electricity system.