Flexible Demand for Higher Integration of Renewables into the European Power System

The increase of intermittent power sources in the European energy mix requires higher flexibility from the power system. In this paper the impact of different penetration levels of demand response technologies onto the integration of variable renewable energy sources is analysed. At first, the developed multi-level, pan-European dispatch model as well as the description of a scenario for 2050 are introduced. By applying different levels of flexibility for the electricity demand, we show that both generation and load curtailments reduce consistently for increasing load flexibility. Nevertheless, it is shown that with 10
^%
of the demand being flexible and deferrable by 24 hours, only 7% of renewables and 12.1 % of load curtailments can be reduced, therefore more technologies providing flexibility like storages or grid reinforcement are deemed necessary.