Assessing hydropower flexibility for integrating solar and wind energy in West Africa using dynamic programming and sensitivity analysis. Illustration with the Akosombo reservoir, Ghana

JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION

卷:287

Article

Danso, Derrick Kwadwo^1,2  Francois, Baptiste³  Hingray, Benoit¹  Diedhiou, Arona^1,4 

[1] Univ Grenoble Alpes, IRD, CNRS, Grenoble INP,IGE, F-38000 Grenoble, France

[2] Univ Abdou Moumouni, Grad Res Program Climate Change & Energy, Ctr Climate Change & Adapted Land Use WASCAL, West African Sci Serv,Fac Sci & Tech, Niamey, Niger

[3] Univ Massachusetts, Dept Civil & Environm Engn, Amherst, MA 01003 USA

[4] Univ Felix Houphouet Boigny, Ctr Excellence Africain Changement Climat Biodive, Abidjan, Cote Ivoire

关键词: Renewable energy integration;    Optimal mix;    Solar and wind energy;    Hydropower operations;    Residual demand variability;    West Africa;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.125559

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

The flexibility of hydropower plants with large reservoirs is frequently exploited to integrate large shares of variable and intermittent renewable energy sources in electricity systems. In this study, we assess the flexibility that could be provided by large hydropower reservoirs in West Africa to cope with planned future solar and wind energy generation in the region. Reservoir operations are estimated via Dynamic Programming with the objective to minimize the variability of the residual demand that commonly needs to be supplied by conventional generation means at high monetary and carbon costs. The analysis framework is demonstrated for the Akosombo hydropower reservoir in Ghana for which a number of future scenarios of increased electricity demand are considered. Different combinations of solar and wind energy development are considered to match the increase in demand. The results show that the Akosombo hydropower reservoir can smooth out the variability of the residual electricity demand when the increase in electricity demand is below 25% and the corresponding contribution of solar and wind energy to the total electricity generation does not exceed 20%. For larger increases in demand and thus larger solar and wind generation, the Akosombo reservoir cannot fully smooth-out the variability of the subsequent residual demand, although, the performance varies with the relative contribution of solar and wind in the energy mix. However, we found that the use of an additional short-term storage helps to further reduce the variability of the residual demand. (c) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free