Edi Assoumou

Key features of the electricity production sector through long-term planning : the French case

We present a view of a long-term French electricity production sector with a MARKAL approach. The aim of MARKAL is to optimise energy systems in the long- mid- term with an explicit description of the technologies used. Using the example of French electricity supply, we will illustrate the tools potential and provide the necessary technical information for assessing the extent to which MARKAL models provide a good opportunity for helping industry leaders and decision-makers who are involved in the electricity sector to make energy strategy choices-at regional, national and international level

Long-term planning and the sustainable power system: A focus on flexibility needs and network reliability

Long-term planning models are useful to describe future energy and technology options and to analyze environmental issues. They propose solutions for meeting future energy consumption. Focusing on the electricity sector, we argue that in order to provide a more relevant assessment of the power supply system ahead we need to tackle both flexibility needs and network reliability.

A Global Renewable Energy Roadmap: Comparing Energy Systems Models with IRENA’s REmap 2030 Project

In 2014, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) published a global renewable energy roadmap—called REmap 2030—to double the share of renewables in the global energy mix by 2030 compared to 2010 (IRENA, A Renewable Energy Roadmap, 2014a). A REmap tool was developed to facilitate a transparent and open framework to aggregate the national renewable energy plans and/or scenarios of 26 countries. Unlike the energy systems models by IEA-ETSAP teams, however, the REmap tool does not account for trade-offs between renewable energy and energy efficiency activities, system planning issues like path dependency and investments in the grid infrastructure, competition for scarce resources—e.g. biomass—in the commodity prices, or dynamic cost developments as technologies get deployed over time. This chapter compares the REmap tool with the IEA-ETSAP models at two levels: the results and the insights. Based on the results comparison, it can be concluded that the REmap tool can be used as a way to explicitly engage national experts, to scope renewable energy options, and to compare results across countries. However, the ETSAP models provide detailed insights into the infrastructure requirements, competition between technologies and resources, and the role of energy efficiency needed for planning purposes. These insights are particularly relevant for countries with infrastructure constraints and/or ambitious renewable energy targets. As more and more countries are turning to renewables to secure their energy future, the REmap tool and the ETSAP models have complementary roles to play in engaging policy makers and national energy planners to advance renewables.

Assessing the Impact of Smart Building Techniques: a Prospective Study for France

Saving energy is an essential lever in cutting our greenhouse gases emissions. Worldwide, the building sector is responsible for 40% of energy consumption. We focus on the French commercial sector in order to assess the gains that could be made by using smart building techniques over the long term (2030-2050). We use a long-term planning model based on a Markal/Times approach. We develop a specific way of modeling energy savings potential and energy conservation techniques. The commercial sectors energy consumption, sorted by energy carrier, sub-sector and end-use, is determined for the baseline year (2000). It is then extrapolated to 2050, using existing French prospective studies. Assumptions are made on the value of other external parameters, such as energy prices, technological evolution, etc. The model shows that smart building helps to reduce the commercial sectors overall consumption by 8%. This result remains stable when external parameters are modified: smart building solutions are robust. These solutions are complementary to passive (insulation) solutions, and they result in a reduction of the global cost of the energy system.

Long-Term Water and Energy Issues in European Power Systems

Abstract European countries are highly diverse in terms of their socioeconomic development, energy sources, power mixes, water access, and availability. At the same time, they need to develop their power systems and satisfy their water requirements. We propose to take a journey through this European diversity, crossing the Balkans, Norway, France, and southern Europe, to understand how water and power interweave. To do so, we focus on the following generation technologies: thermoelectric plants that use water to discharge waste heat and hydropower for its direct link with water (dam needs and evaporation) and also as a way of balancing the significant integration of intermittent renewable sources (solar and wind). We also look at how water constraints will impact future investments in the European power system on the 2050 horizon.

Smart grids and power supply reliability: The impact of demand response on future power mixes

The general consensus is that Smart Grids offer one of the most attractive solutions for tackling the issues facing the energy sector. However, one of the main challenges of Smart Grids is how to maintain or even increase the the electricity systems level of reliability. When we implement the Demand Response concept and a reliability indicator in a prospective energy system model, Demand Response emerges as a potential solution to the environmental issues faced by current and future energy systems. When we constrain future power systems to a level of reliability that is as high as the current level, Demand Response brings a decrease the overall system cost. This analysis is illustrated by the case study of the Reunion Island, which aims to produce electricity using 100% renewable energy sources by 2030, and for which Smart Grids are also a potential solution for reaching this objective.

France 2072: Lifestyles at the Core of Carbon Neutrality Challenges

In this chapter, we propose to explore the conditions under which a stringent target of 1.5 °C—written into the Paris Agreement in December 2015—may be fulfilled at a country level, France, while focusing on energy issues. The analysis horizon spans to 2072 in reference to the Club of Rome’s 1972 Limits to Growth publication, 2072 being the neutral target. To this end, we explore the impact of two contrasting lifestyles for France: the first, named digital, represents an individualistic and technological society, whereas the second, named collective, depicts a society with strong social ties and cooperation between citizens. These scenarios are assessed through different models, each one representing a particular aspect: lifestyles, economy and technologies. While technology-oriented energy models usually omit or over-simplify the lifestyle dimension, the proposed approach gives a more coherent framework for the formulation of alternative demand levels. These demands for energy services enrich the scenario-building process and influence not only the economic system, but also the energy system. The digital society involves significant growth of both GDP and the unemployment rate, and does not result in carbon neutrality, whereas the collective society leads to smaller growth of GDP and a decrease in the unemployment rate, but makes it possible to reach a nil carbon target. These results underline the leverage role of lifestyles in attaining carbon neutrality.

Time reconciliation and space agregation to shed light on the plausibility of long-term low carbon pathways for power systems

To address the abysmal lack of efficiency of the electrical system (73% of losses, 45% of worldwide CO2 emissions), an energy-efficient description of electromagnetism lying on a reversible interpretation of the Faradays law is described. This framework appears suitable for the space-consolidation and time-reconciliation of all the scales involved in the power management of the electromagnetic energy. A simplified description of the grid based on the Kuramoto model also recently proved to be suitable for assessing the stability of the synchronous state of a power system. Combining both frameworks, a coherent approach for long-term power systems analysis is proposed here and demonstrated in the case of the French Reunion island.