arXiv subjects

Carlos Gaete-Morales

Publications and source records attributed to Carlos Gaete-Morales.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

A moderate share of V2G outperforms large-scale smart charging of electric vehicles and benefits other consumers

While battery electric vehicles (BEVs) play a key role for decarbonizing the transport sector, their impact on the power sector heavily depends on their charging strategies. Here we systematically analyze various combinations between inflexible, smart and bidirectional (or vehicle-to-grid, V2G) charging of 15 million electric cars in Germany. Using a capacity expansion model, we find that even a moderate share of bidirectional charging below 30% leads to lower system costs than a fully smartly charging BEV fleet. At a V2G share of 50%, costs are even lower than in a system without any BEVs. This means that the flexibility effect of half of the BEV fleet charging bidirectionally outweighs the demand effect of the whole BEV fleet. We show how costs savings are driven by the ability of V2G to serve demand, especially during hours with high residual load. We also explore the distributional effects of respective electricity price changes. While V2G car owners internalize a substantial share of overall cost savings, the benefits increasingly spill over to other electricity consumers as the share of bidirectional charging grows. We conclude that policymakers should focus on enabling a moderate fleet share of V2G rather than on enabling every car to charge smartly.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2024

Power sector benefits of flexible heat pumps

Heat pumps play a major role in decreasing fossil fuel use in heating. They increase electricity demand, but could also foster the system integration of variable renewable energy sources. We analyze three scenarios for expanding decentralized heat pumps in Germany by 2030, focusing on the role of buffer heat storage. Using an open-source power sector model, we assess costs, capacity investments, and emissions effects. We find that investments in solar photovoltaics can cost-effectively accompany the roll-out of heat pumps in case wind power expansion potentials are limited. Results further show that short-duration heat storage substantially reduces the need for firm capacity and battery storage. Larger heat storage sizes do not substantially change the results. Increasing the number of heat pumps from 1.7 to 10 million units could annually save around a quarter of Germany's overall natural gas consumption and around half of households' building-related CO2 emissions.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2024

Impacts of electric carsharing on a power sector with variable renewables

Electrifying the car fleet is a major strategy for mitigating emissions in the transport sector. As electrification cannot solve all negative externalities associated with cars, reducing the size of the car fleet would be beneficial. Electric carsharing could allow to reconcile current car usage habits with a smaller fleet, but this may reduce the potential of electric cars to align their grid interactions with variable renewable electricity generation. We investigate how electric carsharing may impact the power sector, combining three methods: sequence clustering of car travel diaries, generation of synthetic electric vehicle time series, and power sector modelling. We show that switching to electric carsharing only moderately increases power sector costs, less than 110 euros per substituted car in our main setting. This effect is largest with bidirectional charging. We conclude that the power sector interactions of shared electric car fleets could still be aligned with variable renewable electricity generation.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2024

Power sector effects of alternative options for de-fossilizing heavy-duty vehicles -- go electric, and charge smartly

Various options are discussed to de-fossilize heavy-duty vehicles (HDV), including battery-electric vehicles (BEV), electric road systems (ERS), and indirect electrification via hydrogen fuel cells or e-fuels. We investigate their power sector implications in future scenarios of Germany with high renewable energy shares, using an open-source capacity expansion model and route-based truck traffic data. Power sector costs are lowest for flexibly charged BEV that also carry out vehicle-to-grid operations, and highest for e-fuels. If BEV and ERS-BEV are not optimally charged, power sector costs increase, but are still substantially lower than in scenarios with hydrogen or e-fuels. This is because indirect electrification is less energy efficient, which outweighs potential flexibility benefits. BEV and ERS-BEV favor solar photovoltaic energy, while hydrogen and e-fuels favor wind power and increase fossil electricity generation. Results remain qualitatively robust in sensitivity analyses.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2021

DIETERpy: a Python framework for The Dispatch and Investment Evaluation Tool with Endogenous Renewables

DIETER is an open-source power sector model designed to analyze future settings with very high shares of variable renewable energy sources. It minimizes overall system costs, including fixed and variable costs of various generation, flexibility and sector coupling options. Here we introduce DIETERpy that builds on the existing model version, written in the General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS), and enhances it with a Python framework. This combines the flexibility of Python regarding pre- and post-processing of data with a straightforward algebraic formulation in GAMS and the use of efficient solvers. DIETERpy also offers a browser-based graphical user interface. The new framework is designed to be easily accessible as it enables users to run the model, alter its configuration, and define numerous scenarios without a deeper knowledge of GAMS. Code, data, and manuals are available in public repositories under permissive licenses for transparency and reproducibility.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2021

An open tool for creating battery-electric vehicle time series from empirical data -- emobpy

There is substantial research interest in how future fleets of battery-electric vehicles will interact with the power sector. To this end, various types of energy models depend on meaningful input parameters, in particular time series of vehicle mobility, driving electricity consumption, grid availability, or grid electricity demand. As the availability of such data is highly limited, we introduce the open-source tool emobpy. Based on mobility statistics, physical properties of vehicles, and other customizable assumptions, it derives time series data that can readily be used in a wide range of model applications. For an illustration, we create and characterize 200 battery-electric vehicle profiles for Germany. Depending on the hour of the day, a fleet of one million vehicles has a median grid availability between 5 and 7 gigawatts, as vehicles are parking most of the time. Four exemplary grid electricity demand time series illustrate the smoothing effect of balanced charging strategies.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2020

Techno-economic criteria to evaluate power flow allocation schemes

We develop novel quantitative techno-economic evaluation criteria for power flow allocation schemes. Such schemes assign which nodes are responsible for which proportion of power flows on a line in a meshed electricity transmission network. As this allocation is, as such, indeterminate, the literature has proposed a number of dedicated schemes. To better understand the implications of applying different schemes, our criteria comprise their (i) fairness, (ii) plausibility, (iii) uniqueness, and (iv) stability. We apply, illustrate, and discuss these criteria for four prominent schemes based on results of a detailed electricity sector model with linear power flow for a German mid-term future case.

physics.soc-ph↗