Operational planning of large-scale energy systems with high share of renewable generation

This paper proposes a mathematical model to perform optimal operational planning of large-scale energy systems with high share of renewable energy. Furthermore, it analyses the influence of different unit commitment modelling approaches on the operational planning outcomes. The value of co-optimisation of electricity and heating sector is emphasized in this paper. The results show the influence of massive renewable penetration in the energy sector towards 2050, and how this influences generation from other sources such as thermal and hydro. Including unit commitment constraints with integer variables leads to more realistic behaviour of the units, at the cost of increasing considerably the computational time. Relaxing integer variables reduces significantly the computational time, without highly compromising the accuracy of the results. Neglecting the unit commitment constraints leads to inaccurate results in terms of underestimation of costs, curtailment, wind’s and solar PV’s average revenue per energy unit sold, price volatility, and to overestimation of the flexibility of thermal units. Hence, depending on the purpose of the analysis, it is recommended to consider carefully the choice of unit commitment modelling approach and acknowledge the limitations. When the focus is on prices and revenues, using unit commitment constraints with integer variables is preferable.