Power system flexibility need induced by wind and solar power intermittency on time scales of 1–14 days

This article describes a method to assess the needed production flexibility to adapt the power system to the production from variable renewable energy sources such as wind power and photovoltaics over time horizons of 1–14 days. Load and production data from the German power system is used to quantify the flexibility need in terms of power and energy storage requirement due to higher shares of renewable energy (20–80%). It is found that with an 80% variable renewable energy share in the German system, the average power need from flexible sources decreases by 31 GW (59%) while the peak power need only decreases by 3 GW (4%). In terms of energy, the storage need over a two week horizon increases by 2.6 TWh, which is 14% of the average load per day. If the European plans for 100 GW wind power in the North Sea region are realised, this would mean an increase of the energy storage need in the region with 2.2 TWh over a two week horizon.