Global observatory of electricity resources (Task 4.2)

The two EC FP7 FCH-JU (Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking) projects POWER UP and ALKAMMONIA provide relevant inputs for the fuel cell chapter of the GO. In addition to an overview of fuel cell systems, both projects include an extensive comparison with relevant alternative options.

This joint project aims to substitute electricity and fossil fuels used for cooling and heating of buildings in Switzerland with low-grade waste heat from industrial processes and thermal energy from cogeneration, renewables and traditional fuels. Therefore, it is relevant for co-generation options addressed in the GO.

While accident risks are not explicitly treated in the GO, PSI-LEA investigates this aspect primarily for hydropower and to a lesser extent for other technologies within this NRP 70 project.

Within the Energy – Economy - Society (EES) research program of the SFOE, the Energy Economics Group at PSI in collaboration with the University of Zurich investigates the investment and market behavior of power utilities. For the methodology, we use multilevel equilibrium market models of Nash-Cournot type. The first level is the investment of the players, the second level is the market-exchange of electricity. Investigated issues comprise: market power, investment risk, risk-averse decision-making, and transmission constraints. The modeling is intended to be with real-world data; we consider the potential of large companies or of countries in Europe to exert market power. The market clearing is limited by transmission constraints, and players face different investment risks, such as regulatory uncertainty and stochastic fuel prices. The analysis may allow regulators to better design investment and market rules to ensure acceptable electricity prices for consumers.

The SwissHydro research program investigates three different aspects of the prospect of hydropower in Switzerland: system integration, future electricity market prices in Europe, and optimal dispatch with decision-making under uncertainty.
The first aspect considers the optimal integration of hydropower into the future Swiss energy system, in which the flexibility of hydropower and its near-zero carbon emissions can contribute to system stability and to a low carbon economy. A special focus is the hourly flexible storage capacity for intermittent renewables, and the synergy with the heat sector. For this part, we use a long-term energy-system model, which extends the Swiss TIMES energy system model (STEM). Apart from such system aspects, the profitability of hydropower plants depends on the future electricity prices on the integrated European markets. Hence, in the second part of the project, we use a Nash-Cournot equilibrium model to investigate the market behavior of players under different future investment decisions and energy policy scenarios. This model yields (aggregated) electricity prices. In the third part of the project, we investigate the profitability of an optimal dispatch of hydropower against exogenous stochastic prices and stochastic natural water inflow; the price levels are given by the previous market model. In particular, we investigate pumped-hydropower. We use multistage stochastic programming on a scenario tree, and we assume risk-averse decision making.

This project is closely related to the SCCER HaE, but also relevant for the GO because it provides a sustainability assessment for a complementary storage option to hydropower.

This project aims to assess the impact of policies supporting hydropower and other renewable energies (RES) in Switzerland considering the changes in the neighboring energy markets. Therefore, the price effect of changes in the market design and support schemes of neighboring countries will be analyzed. Based on this, the profitability of hydropower and the value of RES will be analyzed to determine the required support for these technologies. This work is a collaboration with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

The analysis covers complete energy chains (in the spirit of Life Cycle Assessment) of technologies for Swiss electricity supply until 2050 (and is thus highly relevant for the Swiss Energy Perspectives 2050). Domestic options for power generation to be analyzed are small and large hydro power, wind power, photovoltaics, biomass, geothermal power, natural gas plants, and fuel cells. Offshore wind, wave, and tidal as well as solar-thermal, nuclear, and coal power are addressed with view to potential electricity imports. A first interim report has been submitted to the SFOE in May, 2015. A much more complete second interim report will be submitted to the SFOE in December / January 2015. The final joint SFOE and SCCER-SoE report with contributions from the SCCER BIOSWEET will be completed by June, 2016.

The two EC FP7 FCH-JU (Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking) projects ALKAMMONIA & POWER UP provide relevant inputs for the fuel cell chapter of the GO. In addition to an overview of fuel cell systems, both projects include an extensive comparison with relevant alternative options.

The two projects Geotherm & TA-Swiss DGE provide state-of-the-art information for the geothermal chapter, although within the GO the analyzed geothermal cases are partially adapted to reflect the specific needs of the SCCER-SoE.

This project provides relevant inputs for the biomass chapter, but in addition there is also a strong connection to the SCCER BIOSWEET.

The project studies the impacts of adding distributed stochastic generation to the Swiss electricity system. It is divided in two phases. The first phase focuses on evaluating the impact of renewable energy systems (mainly photovoltaic generation) at the distribution voltage level, while the second phase extends the study to the Swiss national scale and thus also considers higher voltage levels of the transmission grid, along with a wider range of RES and additional storage options. PSI’s Technology Assessment group is involved in a number of SCCER-SoE work packages and tasks, namely
- definition of objectives, indicators and scenarios,
- technology assessment including Life Cycle Assessment,
- assessment of alternative RES integration strategies, and
- energy system modeling.
Overall, the results of this project are relevant for several chapters in the GO report.

The two projects TA-Swiss DGE & Geotherm provide state-of-the-art information for the geothermal chapter, although within the GO the analyzed geothermal cases are partially adapted to reflect the specific needs of the SCCER-SoE.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of nuclear power in state-of-the-art LCA needs to be provided from both current, but also future perspective, considering the long time-horizon of potential operation of reactors in Switzerland. The main objective of this project is the update and extension of LCA data of nuclear power generation in Switzerland, and thus providing inputs for the respective chapter in the GO report.

This project is relevant for the project “RISK-GOV: DGE & HYDRO” in terms of methodological developments, and thus feeds indirectly into the GO through NRP 70 and associated activities in Task 4.1

The project aims to transfer the coherent energy scenarios (“Jazz” and “Symphony”) of the global energy system until 2050 to the example of New Zealand. This project is executed in collaboration and funded by the New Zealand branch of the World Energy Council (WEC). PSI is the main energy scenario modelling partner of WEC. The global scenarios (15 world regions) provide boundary conditions for national or European long-term energy scenarios, where the sub-scenarios of the electricity sector have a pivotal role for the energy system.