Modeling Low Carbon and Low-Cost Electricity Supply for Pakistan

Currently, the electricity generation companies around the world are moving towards low carbon and low-cost generation sources. It is supported by literature that instead of a single type of renewable source located at one place, dispersed and multiple types of the renewable sources can be the promising solution for low carbon and low-cost electricity supply. However, the best combination of these dispersed and different types of renewable sources for a certain area completely depends on the electric load profile and natural occurrences of natural phenomena. Authors model several combinations of renewable sources (e.g. wind turbine, Solar PV) and energy storage systems (e.g. battery, fuel cell) to supply electricity to a large-scale grid. The proposed model calculates the required combination of renewable sources and energy storage using hourly load and meteorological data of a whole year (8760 hours). Authors find out that low carbon and low-cost combinations contain excessive electricity generation capacity. The presented case study shows this excessive generation capacity is about three times the load peak demand. This is because the different types and excessive renewable generation capacity can meet the load using smaller energy storage which lessens the total system cost.