Date and time: Wednesday, 4 Dec 2019 | 3 PM

Organiser: Ashwin Gambhir

Competitive solar and wind prices offer significant opportunity to optimise supply cost and reduce socio-environmental impacts of power sector. The variable nature of renewable (RE) generation necessitates the use of advanced modelling tools to understand optimum level of RE generation that can be integrated without compromising reliability and in a cost effective manner. In this webinar, we share insights from first of its kind exercise to study the implications of high RE shares for the Maharashtra system in 2030. This exercise involved granular (15 min block) system simulation using the PLEXOS platform and shows that 50 % of electricity demand can be met by RE sources without any adverse economic or reliability implications.

In this production cost simulation exercise, we compare the differences between a business-as-usual case and a couple of high RE scenarios with respect to parameters such as reliability, system operation in stress hours/months, thermal fleet operation, RE curtailment and total costs. We find that it is possible to reliably meet demand in 2030 with 50% energy contribution from RE, without any net addition to the coal fleet and with the coal fleet operating within close to current technical limits. This requires the regulatory institution and utilities to be more agile in terms of demand estimation, exploring more flexible and innovative power procurement strategies including but not limited to opportunistically adding battery storage capacity, undertaking rigorous transmission planning exercises and experimenting with new retail tariff design frameworks. During the webinar, insights from this detailed modelling exercise for Maharashtra were shared.

The presentation made at the webinar and its full recording can be accessed below.