Offshore Electricity Infrastructure in Europe - European Wind Energy ...

Annex d – details of results
FiGuRe 13.13: maximum distance between hubs FOR asymmetRic wind FaRm hubs capacity - diFFeRent pROFiles OF pRice
diFFeRence (30% tO cOuntRy a, 50% tO eitheR cOuntRy, and 70% tO cOuntRy b) [€/mwh] (inteRcOnnectOR capacity OF
500 mw, wind FaRm capacity in cOuntRy 2 is twice the size OF the wind FaRm in cOuntRy a)
Minimum distance
between hubs (km)
400
300
200
100
0
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1,000
30%
50%
which is compared), the more infrastructure costs will
be saved by interconnecting hubs. The maximum beneficial
distance between hubs therefore increases with
increasing direct interconnector length (Figure 13.11).
Impact of absolute price difference
The higher the absolute price difference between the
countries, the more the trade of electricity becomes
important and the less the interconnector cable
should be constrained. For higher absolute price differences,
the reduction in infrastructure costs due
to the reduced cable length must be higher to cover
the reduction in system benefits. The maximum distance
between hubs in these cases is therefore lower
(Figure 13.12).
Electricity price profiles and wind-price
correlations
• Unbalanced price profiles have no impact
If the price difference is not balanced, which here
means that the price is most of the time (>50% of
the time) lower in one country, one of the legs (the
one connecting the country with lower prices) is not
often loaded and infrastructure remains unused
(the leg connecting the country with lower prices).
However, as the constraints on the cables are independent
on the direction of the price difference
Wind farm hub capacity (on either side) (MW)
70%
when the cable capacities are identical, this has
no effect on the break—even distance. The constraints
can be partly relieved by dimensioning one
leg bigger and the other leg smaller.
• Correlation between wind and price imbalance increases
the impact.
• As before with the tee-in solutions (paragraph
4.4.1), a correlation between the wind power production
and the price imbalance has a negative
effect on the economics of integrated solutions
compared to the business as usual case. Similarly,
an inverse correlation has a positive effect.
Impact of asymmetric wind farm hub
capacities
In Figure 13.13 the effect of asymmetric wind farm
hub capacities is analysed. The wind farm hub in country
A is 50% smaller than the wind farm hub in country
B. The wind farm connection cable in country B is thus
double the size of the connection cable in country A so
that wind power from both hubs can flow to the country
with the highest prices most of the time (country
B). Figure 13.13 confirms that when prices are more
often higher in country B (30% of price difference balanced
to country A), the trade is less constrained
which leads to a higher maximum distance between
hubs.
136 OffshoreGrid – Final Report