Planning Coal Power Generation Transition Considering Multiple Alternatives With a Full Life Cycle Perspective

The transition of coal power generation is critical for the net-zero carbon emission evolution of power systems. It profoundly affects and is affected by the development of other parts of the power system so that a source-grid-load-storage co-planning model is required for the analysis. This paper proposes an efficient linear-form coal power transition planning model for long-term and large-scale planning problems. It considers six coal power transition alternatives, including new installation, at-life retirement, early retirement, rehabilitation, flexibility retrofit, carbon capture and storage retrofit, and covers a full life cycle of coal power from the temporal scale. First, coal power generation is clustered according to type and age to reduce the complexity in decisions and constraints in the planning model. Second, six transition alternatives are universally modelled considering the age dynamics of coal power during the planning horizon. Finally, a multistage coal power transition planning model coordinated with the expansion planning of source-grid-load-storage is formulated. Case studies on 8-stage 31- bus real-world China's power system from 2020 to 2060 suggest the effectiveness of the proposed model. The transition path of coal power with the coordination of different transition alternatives and the changing role of coal power towards carbon neutrality are analysed.