Hedging Strategy and Electricity Contract Engineering - IFOR

2.4 Transmission costs 15
10
Peak load
Hourly demand [GW]
5
Intermediate load
Base load
0 20% 40% 60% 80% 8760h
Percent of total hours
Fig. 2.3: Sample load duration curve.
only the net of all electrical currents is flowing in the electrical cable. As a
consequence of the Kirchoff-laws, the electrical current does not necessarily
flow through a certain line, but through a number of lines. The effective path
of a transaction is therefore in a complex mesh not definable. Since it is not
possible to mark the flow of electrons in a line, it is totally misleading to
believe that one knows from which plant the electron-flow comes from and by
which load it will be used. Still it is important to find a plausible determination
of the path of electrical energy in the transmission net. The goal is to find a
consequent and fair calculation of the transmission costs in the grid.
The transmission costs can according to [Big00] be divided into three categories:
Infrastructure costs, transmission losses and ancillary services.
Infrastructure costs consist of the capital costs of the capital intense grid and
operating costs, like personal costs.
Transmission losses are caused by the fact that energy is lost in the whole system,
in the lines and in the components. In a transmission grid typically
1-2 percent of the electrical energy is lost due to resistance. In the distribution
net even more, roughly 5-6 percent is lost because of the low