Understanding Distribution Grid Congestion Caused by Electricity Generation from Renewables

Hans Schermeyer (1) , Michael Studer (1) , Manuel Ruppert (1) , Wolf Fichtner (1)

1 KIT - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Worldwide the increasing amount of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E) is challenging the way how electricity systems traditionally work. While conventional power plants used to be located close to major demand centers, a great share of the RES-E capacity installed over the last years is located far away from areas of high demand. In various countries with a strong growth of RES-E this causes an increasing amount of grid congestion both on the transmission and distribution level, for example in Germany.In this work we analyze congestion events in the distribution grid caused by RES-E feed-in and the resulting curtailment. The analysis is applied to an exemplary distribution grid in Northern Germany which faces frequent curtailment. We characterize observed curtailment events with regard to extent, length and frequency and illustrate the importance of location within the grid. The results are relevant for research on how to decrease curtailment and thus increase RES-E utilization within the distribution grid. Our goal is to provide detailed insights on the occurrence of RES-E curtailment to enable research on how to allocate a more efficient dispatch within congested grid areas and on technologies that can contribute to alleviating congestion.

Mots clés: Distribution grid; Congestion management; Renewable energy

Domaines: Informatique [cs]

Hans Schermeyer, Michael Studer, Manuel Ruppert, Wolf Fichtner. Understanding Distribution Grid Congestion Caused by Electricity Generation from Renewables. 3rd and 4th International Conference on Smart Energy Research (SmartER Europe 2016 and 2017), Feb 2016, Essen, Germany. pp.78-89, ⟨10.1007/978-3-319-66553-5_6⟩. ⟨hal-01691205⟩