To reach national and global climate goals, electricity consumption is expected to grow significantly in the coming decades to offset reliance on fossil fuels. As more electricity generation is required, transfer capacity has to increase accordingly to avoid grid congestion and capacity shortages. Traditionally, capacity is added through upgrades and extensions to grid infrastructure, which requires substantial material resources and causes extensive carbon emissions. Additionally, the grid is frequently dimensioned to sustain consumption peaks which only occur a few hours per year. This thesis explores how implementing transfer capacity flexibility solutions can optimise the utilisation of the existing electricity grid infrastructure, thereby reducing the need for extensive physical grid expansions and the associated carbon emissions. The methodology includes a division between a qualitative and quantitative analysis. The qualitative analysis is based on a literature review examining numerous different flexibility resources with regards to their national potential, climate impacts, and grid values. The quantitative analysis uses a case study of a grid capacity project to assess how flexibility can reduce necessary grid infrastructure enhancements and the associated carbon emissions in 2030. The results indicate that flexibility resources, including demand side flexibility, supply side flexibility, energy storage, and operational flexibility, can be used to increase the utilisation of existing grid infrastructure by providing congestion relief, load- and generation balancing, and capacity enhancement. The quantitative results demonstrate that a majority of the climate impact associated with grid expansion is tied to largely unutilised added capacity which can be extensively reduced with flexibility implementation. The largest curtailment of 3 709 kg CO2-eq./year can be achieved with dynamic line- and transformer rating combined with demand side flexibility. This alternative reduces the grid expansion requirement from 5.6 MW to 2.9 MW, maintaining load requirements while halving the necessary grid expansion and associated emissions
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-533998 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Thunberg, Caroline, Holström, Matilda |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Elektricitetslära |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | UPTEC ES, 1650-8300 ; 24019 |
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