The European energy system will experience important changes, in particular due to the targets set for renewable energy integration, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiency. The electricity system is expected to be exposed to new or increased risks, for instance in terms of security of electricity supply, congestion, system stability, curtailments, difficulty to meet the demand at some periods of time. To face this evolution, there is a growing need for more flexibility and more active involvement of all the stakeholders at all levels (from distribution to pan-European) to ensure an efficient and reliable operation of the electricity system.
Enhanced synergies between different energy carriers appear now as one means to provide flexibility to the electricity system but also to drive efficiency and business innovation in the energy sector.
The MAGNITUDE project has developed a whole chain of optimization and coordination tools, as well as business and market mechanisms, to provide flexibility to the European electricity system, by optimizing the synergies between electricity, gas, heating and cooling systems.
More specifically, MAGNITUDE’s main goals were to:
- enable the provision of services by Multi-Energy Systems (MES) to support the cost-effective integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES), and enhance security of supply,
- bring under a common framework, technical solutions, market designs and business models,
- contribute to the ongoing policy discussions in the energy field.
The methods and tools were assessed on seven real-life case studies of multi-energy systems of different sizes and technological features located in seven European countries (Austria, Denmark, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, UK) and covering different regulatory frameworks, sector-coupling technologies, stakeholders and business models.
The project results confirmed that MESs can definitely provide flexibility to support the integration of RES in the electricity system and to contribute to decarbonization of energy system. They have potential to participate in energy markets, frequency ancillary service procurement, congestion management and capacity requirement mechanisms. But this strongly depends on the technologies involved in the MES, the process and operation strategies. The simulations carried out for the seven case studies showed that a significant amount of flexibility can be available but only a small part is actually activated (i.e. in terms of energy delivered). The main reasons for this situation are of different natures: (i) technical, for instance linked to the capabilities of the technologies,(ii) economic, for instance linked to competitiveness of the bids proposed on the markets with respect to other resources, or the economic viability of the business models, (iii) regulatory, for instance linked to limitations to access some markets.
