Economic & Environmental Merits of a Flexible Base-Load Power Network Under Large Solar PV Penetration

This paper evaluates the potential economic & environmental benefits from improving the operational flexibility of large base-load nuclear power plants that supply major portion of the electricity loads in the United States. It examines the maximum allowable penetration level of solar Photovoltaic (PV) under flexible and inflexible nuclear power plants operations (NPPs) scenarios and estimates the expected total cost and emissions of the system.Simulation results revealed that the maximum share of solar PV which can be integrated into the power networks under inflexible NPPs scenario is only 8.9% of the total system’s electricity generation. This limit is increased by 39% to 12.4% by having more flexible NPPs operations. The results also suggest that the maximum solar PV penetration level under inflexible NPPs scenario would reduce the system’s operational costs and CO2 emissions by 6.2% and 17%, respectively while flexible NPPs scenario would result in reductions of 9.1% and 25% in the system’s costs and CO2 emissions, respectively.