Optimal integration of Power-to-X plants in a future European energy system and the resulting dynamic requirements

Abstract The technologies for future energy systems must be developed now, but they will be deployed into energy systems very different from those of today. This is a challenge for Power-to-X technologies, which rely on the fluctuating production of renewable energies. Dynamic analysis is indispensable to achieve ideal integration of Power–to–X into the energy system. Thereby dynamic requirements for Power-to-X plants become clear and can be fed back to plant operators and component manufacturers. This allows to develop key components of Power-to-X today in a way that they match future energy systems perfectly. Using linear programming, this study optimizes a large-scale energy system completely coupled with the components of a Power-to-X plant. This Power-to-X plant produces hydrogen and synthetic natural gas. The results reveal that in the considered scenario Power-to-X plants are installed in almost all regions and are used for multi-day to seasonal energy storage. Electrolysis must be operated very dynamically and has about 200 starts a year in every region, whereas methanation is much more decoupled from the fluctuations of renewables and only has about 40 starts a year in every region. This is made possible by a hydrogen storage system which, if ideally designed, can store the hydrogen production of the electrolysis for an average of 17 h. Furthermore, this study investigates other flexibility requirements for Power-to-X plants including their scheduling, full load hours, average uptimes, and average downtimes.