The influence of renewables and international trade on investment decisions in the grid of the future.

Abstract

The importance of new network investments is generally recognized. In order to make efficient investment decisions for the future transmission grid, factors such as the integration of renewables in the grid and international trade have to be taken into account. The increased international energy flows due to trade in a consumer environment which expects the reliability of supply to increase, or at least remain at its current level, makes it clear that investments to increase the scarcely available cross-border transfer capacities are needed. Building new transmission lines could alleviate this problem. However, this is often unacceptable due to social and political circumstances. The development of new transmission technologies looks promising in this respect. The unpredictable behaviour of renewables makes it hard to balance consumed and generated electric power. This creates excellent opportunities for energy storage. Although electrical energy storage always has been regarded as not economical, recent developments have provided some new opportunities. This paper gives an overview of existing and new technologies that will determine the future power system. Special attention is given to energy storage systems.