A market-based investigation of large-scale Renewable Energy integration in Northwestern Europe

A high increase in the installed capacities of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) is expected by 2020 and beyond in Europe, and power systems planners and regulators have to make sure that the power systems are designed and operated to make optimal use of the potential of these clean energy sources. This paper investigates the consequences of integrating large-scale solar and wind power in the future Northwestern European power system. A zonal market model is used, where unit commitment and economic dispatch simulations for a given development scenario of load and generation, including wind power and solar power time series and inter-zonal transmission constraints, are with hourly resolution. The ability of the power system to absorb the available “green” energy is assessed. Moreover, factors that can hamper or improve the RES integration are identified by performing a sensitivity analysis on a subset of the scenario attributes.