Value assessment of carbon emission reduction for hydropower units based on VCG theory

Toward the target of “carbon peak and carbon neutrality”, China has designed the green certificate market to promote the development of clean energy resources and shape green power systems. However, different resources (e.g., hydropower units and renewable units) are treated equally in the current green certificate market. In fact, the carbon emission reduction value of different resources may be quite different. An effective market mechanism is responsible for discovering the discrepant carbon emission reduction values of different resources and incentivizing the development of the resources with high carbon emission reduction values. The basis of this goal is to accurately assess the carbon emission reduction value of resources. Taking hydropower units as an example, a value assessment method of carbon emission reduction based on Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) theory is proposed in this paper. The amount of the decrease in the power system’s overall carbon emissions after the integration of hydropower units is regarded as their carbon emission reduction value. The carbon emissions of generation resources in the construction stage and the operation stage are both considered. Carbon emissions in the construction stage are converted based on the typical carbon emission data. Carbon emissions in the operation stage are estimated based on the typical carbon emission factors and the generation dispatch obtained by the time series production simulation. Case studies demonstrate the carbon emission reduction value of hydropower units in different scenarios. The proposed method can also be used to assess the carbon emission reduction value of other resources.