(181b) Integrated Market and Engineering Modelling and Optimization of Low-Carbon Electricity Generation

Fossil fuels will undoubtedly remain a core part of the world’s energy system for the foreseeable future, and possibly beyond the end of the century. However, in this timeframe, the global energy landscape is expected to significantly change as we transition to a low carbon economy in an effort to avoid the effects of dangerous climate change.

A key aspect of this change will be the increasing penetration of intermittent renewable electricity into the worlds energy system – albeit to different extents in different locations. Therefore, it will be vital that the decarbonized thermal power plants which are operating in this period are designed to operate in an integrated fashion with intermittent renewable generators, as opposed to in an antagonistic manner.

In this contribution, we present an integrated assessment of the UK’s electricity market in the period to 2050. To achieve this, we combine dynamic investment and dispatch models which provide insight to the likely installed generation capacity in the UK with detailed plant-scale models of the decarbonized power plants likely to be in operation in this period, focusing on super-critical coal-fired power plants (SCCPP) and open cycle gas turbines (OCGT) integrated with post-combustion CO₂ capture[1].

We consider how changing market landscapes and dynamics necessitate different operating patterns which in turn drive different approaches to the optimal design and operation of these plants.