arXiv subjects

Philipp Andreas Gunkel

Publications and source records attributed to Philipp Andreas Gunkel.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Grid tariff designs coping with the challenges of electrification and their socio-economic impacts

This paper investigates volumetric grid tariff designs under consideration of different pricing mechanisms and resulting cost allocation across socio-techno-economic consumer categories. In a case study of 1.56 million Danish households divided into 90 socio-techno-economic categories, we compare three alternative grid tariffs and investigate their impact on annual electricity bills. The results of our design consisting of a time-dependent threshold penalizing individual peak consumption and a system peak tariff show (a) a range of different allocations that distribute the burden of additional grid costs across both technologies and (b) strong positive outcomes, including reduced expenses for lower-income groups and smaller households.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2023

Uniform taxation of electricity: incentives for flexibility and cost redistribution among household categories

Recent years have shown a rapid adoption of residential solar PV with increased self-consumption and self-sufficiency levels in Europe. A major driver for their economic viability is the electricity tax exemption for the consumption of self-produced electricity. This leads to large residential PV capacities and partially overburdened distribution grids. Furthermore, the tax exemption that benefits wealthy households that can afford capital-intense investments in solar panels in particular has sparked discussions about energy equity and the appropriate taxation level for self-consumption. This study investigates the implementation of uniform electricity taxes on all consumption, irrespective of the origin of the production, by means of a case study of 155,000 hypothetical Danish prosumers. The results show that the new taxation policy redistributes costs progressively across household sizes. As more consumption is taxed, the tax level can be reduced by 38%, leading to 61% of all households seeing net savings of up to 23% off their yearly tax bill. High-occupancy houses save an average of 116 Euro per year at the expense of single households living in large dwellings who pay 55 Euro per year more. Implementing a uniform electricity tax in combination with a reduced overall tax level can (a) maintain overall tax revenues and (b) increase the interaction of batteries with the grid at the expense of behind-the-meter operations. In the end, the implicit cross-subsidy is removed by taxing self-consumption uniformly, leading to a cost redistribution supporting occupant-dense households and encouraging the flexible behavior of prosumers. This policy measure improves economic efficiency and greater use of technology with positive system-wide impacts.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2022

Electricity grid tariffs for electrification in households: Bridging the gap between cross-subsidies and fairness

Developing new electricity grid tariffs in the context of household electrification raises old questions about who pays for what and to what extent. When electric vehicles (EVs) and heat pumps (HPs) are owned primarily by households with higher financial status than others, new tariff designs may clash with the economic argument for efficiency and the political arguments for fairness. This article combines tariff design and redistributive mechanisms to strike a balance between time-differentiated signals, revenue stability for the utility, limited grid costs for vulnerable households, and promoting electrification. We simulate the impacts of this combination on 1.4 million Danish households (about 50% of the country's population) and quantify the cross-subsidization effects between groups. With its unique level of detail, this study stresses the spillover effects of tariffs. We show that a subscription-heavy tariff associated with a ToU rate and a low redistribution factor tackles all the above goals.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2022

Variability in electricity consumption by category of consumer: the impact on electricity load profiles

Residential electrification of transport and heat is changing consumption and its characteristics significantly. Previous studies have demonstrated the impact of socio-techno-economic determinants on residential consumption. However, they fail to capture the distributional characteristics of such consumer groups, which impact network planning and flexibility assessment. Using actual residential electricity consumption profile data for 720,000 households in Denmark, we demonstrate that heat pumps are more likely to influence aggregated peak consumption than electric vehicles. At the same time, other socio-economic factors, such as occupancy, dwelling area and income, show little impact. Comparing the extrapolation of a comprehensive rollout of heat pumps or electric vehicles indicates that the most common consumer category deploying heat pumps has 14% more maximum consumption during peak load hours, 46% more average consumption and twice the higher median compared to households owning an electric vehicle. Electric vehicle show already flexibility with coincidence factors that ranges between 5-15% with a maximum of 17% whereas heat pumps are mostly baseload. The detailed and holistic outcomes of this study support flexibility assessment and grid planning in future studies but also the operation of flexible technologies.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2022

Future role and economic benefits of hydrogen and synthetic energy carriers in Germany: a systematic review of long-term energy scenarios

Determining the development of Germany's energy system by taking the energy transition objectives into account is the subject of a series of studies. Since their assumptions and results play a significant role in the political energy debate for understanding the role of hydrogen and synthetic energy carriers, a better discussion is needed. This article provides a comparative assessment of published transition pathways for Germany to assess the role and advantages of hydrogen and synthetic energy carriers. Twelve energy studies were selected and 37 scenarios for the years 2030 and 2050 were evaluated. Despite the variations, the two carriers will play an important future role. While their deployment is expected to have only started by 2030 with a mean demand of 91 TWh/a (4% of the final energy demand) in Germany, they will be an essential part by 2050 with a mean demand of 480 TWh/a (24% of the final energy demand). A moderately positive correlation (0.53) between the decarbonisation targets and the share of hydrogen-based carriers in final energy demand underlines the relevance for reaching the climate targets. Additionally, value creation effects of about 5 bn EUR/a in 2030 can be expected for hydrogen-based carriers. By 2050, these effects will increase to almost 16 bn EUR/a. Hydrogen is expected to be mainly produced domestically while synthetic fuels are projected to be mostly imported. Despite of all the advantages, the construction of the facilities is associated with high costs which should be not neglected in the discussion.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2020

From passive to active: Flexibility from electric vehicles in the context of transmission system development

Electrification of transport in RES-based power system will support the decarbonisation of the transportsector. However, due to the increase in energy demand and the large peak effects of charging, the passiveintegration of electric cars is likely to undermine sustainability efforts. This study investigates three differentcharging strategies for electric vehicle in Europe offering various degrees of flexibility: passive charging,smart charging and vehicle-to-grid, and puts this flexibility in perspective with the flexibility offered byinterconnections. We use the Balmorel optimization tool to represent the short-term dispatch and long-terminvestment in the energy system and we contribute to the state-of-the-art in developing new methodologiesto represent home charging and battery degradation. Our results show how each step of increased chargingflexibility reduces system costs, affects energy mix, impacts spot prices and reduces CO2 emissions untilthe horizon 2050. We quantify how flexible charging and variable generation mutually support each other(Â¿100TWh from wind and solar energy in 2050) and restrict the business case for stationary batteries, whereaspassive charging results in a substitution of wind by solar energy. The comparison of each charging schemewith and without interconnection expansion highlights the interplay between European countries in terms ofelectricity prices and CO2 emissions in the context of electrified transport. Although the best outcome isreached under the most flexible scenario at the EU level, the situation of the countries with the cheapest andmost decarbonised electricity mix is damaged, which calls for adapted coordination policy at the EU level.

econ.GN↗