Utilizing extra electrical energy from grid bottlenecks provides a promising value discount pathway, although uncertainty and pricing dangers stay
Electrical energy grids have to be fastidiously balanced, with too low ranges of electrical energy resulting in blackouts and too excessive ranges inflicting harm to grids. As a result of intermittent nature of renewable vitality sources akin to photo voltaic and wind, it’s potential for particular areas (e.g. the north of Germany) to have an extra of electrical energy, whereas the ability strains shouldn’t have sufficient capability to move it to increased demand areas akin to cities and industrial areas. This is named a grid bottleneck. To maintain the grid working correctly, operators redispatch electrical energy by decreasing renewable feed-in in oversupplied areas and rising technology elsewhere. Nevertheless, this results in renewable vitality being wasted, and since producers are nonetheless compensated and technology improve on demand is expensive, it’s financially inefficient.
In 2024, Germany created regional redispatch markets in order that renewable electrical energy that might in any other case be curtailed can as a substitute be bought domestically. That is significantly helpful for hydrogen producers as a result of they don’t require a steady provide of electrical energy. As a result of they will function flexibly, turning on and off relying on electrical energy availability, they will make the most of very low-priced electrical energy. On this work, the researchers ask whether or not utilizing this electrical energy supply makes producing inexperienced hydrogen cheaper and the way market costs for in any other case curtailed renewable electrical energy have an effect on this.
They discovered that utilizing solely redispatch electrical energy isn’t cost-effective due to its unreliability. Nevertheless, combining it with completely different renewable vitality sources does cut back prices. Relying on hydrogen storage prices, utilizing redispatch electrical energy can cut back hydrogen manufacturing prices by €0.9 – €1.96 per kg, if the redispatch electrical energy is out there for 0 €/MWh, in comparison with typical prices of round €6-8 per kg with out redispatch electrical energy.
Elevated redispatch costs cut back the potential for manufacturing value reductions, which, mixed with the unreliability of redispatch availability, lowers the inducement for
system useful electrolyser siting inside the regional market areas. Due to this fact, the success of those markets relies upon closely on retaining costs low, which could necessitate efficient value capping however might improve inexperienced hydrogen competitiveness and concurrently lower renewable vitality curtailment.
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Metrics for assessing the financial impacts of energy sector local weather and clear electrical energy insurance policies John Bistline (2021)
