Managing Temporary Oversupply from Renewables Eciently: Electricity Storage Versus Energy Sector Coupling in Germany

An increasing share of electricity from wind and solar PV, the variable renewable energies (VREs), will lead to significant temporary electricity surpluses in Germany in the future. Commonly discussed counter measures are a European super grid or new electric storage options. Instead, we examine in this paper how energy sector coupling, i.e., the interconnection of the power, heat, hydrogen, and natural gas sector, can help to make use of this surplus energy potential in an economic manner. To this end, we employ a detailed cost-optimizing energy system model for a German 2020 and 2050 scenario. We explore dierent coupling technologies and their economic interrelations, as well as their interaction with electrical storage options. The model is regionally resolved and allows to locate dierent technologies in accordance with regional VRE supply and transmission capabilities. The results reveal systematic benefits of energy sector coupling compared to a purely electric storage solution. The heat sector absorbs large parts of the temporary electricity oversupply from VREs and makes long term electricity storage via hydrogen or natural gas questionable. While energy sector coupling initially reduces the need for bulk electricity transmission, transmission grid requirements increase for large VRE shares: the grid is extended to facilitate the sector coupling.

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