Impact of curtailment of renewable energy sources on high voltage network expansion planning

Due to the increasing share of renewable energy sources (RES), electrical networks need to be continuously expanded to integrate all RES without violating operational constraints. In the conventional network expansion process only new grid assets such as lines and transformers are considered to resolve congestions. Due to the volatile feed-in of RES, some assets might only be necessary for limited time during each year. Hence, a curtailment of feed-in from RES in critical situations is being discussed in order to reduce the required network expansion measures. Nowadays in Europe neither a common allowance for planning a network considering RES curtailment nor an indication of costs for the use of curtailment exist. Therefore, this paper investigates the impact of RES curtailment on the planning of high voltage distribution networks.