Principal spatiotemporal mismatch and electricity price patterns in a highly decarbonized networked European power system.

As the European power system decarbonizes, the variability of the mismatch between renewable generation and demand, as well as that of electricity prices, are expected to increase substantially. Because mismatch and prices show complex temporal and spatial interaction, we propose the use of principal component analysis (PCA) to investigate them. We unveil their main spatiotemporal patterns, examine their cross-correlation, and their dependence on the transmission capacity expansion and emissions reduction in a highly renewable cost-optimal electricity model.

Early decarbonisation of the European energy system pays off.

For a given carbon budget over several decades, different transformation rates for the energy system yield starkly different results. Here we consider a budget of 33 GtCO for the cumulative carbon dioxide emissions from the European electricity, heating, and transport sectors between 2020 and 2050, which represents Europe's contribution to the Paris Agreement. We have found that following an early and steady path in which emissions are strongly reduced in the first decade is more cost-effective than following a late and rapid path in which low initial reduction targets quickly deplete the carbon budget and require a sharp reduction later.

A high-resolution hydro power time-series model for energy systems analysis: Validated with Chinese hydro reservoirs.

We expand the renewable technology model palette and present a validated high resolution hydro power time series model for energy systems analysis. Among the weather-based renewables, hydroelectricity shows unique storage-like flexibility, which is particularly important given the high variability of wind and solar power. Often limited by data availability or computational performance, a high resolution, globally applicable and validated hydro power time series model has not been available.

Robustness of networks against fluctuation-induced cascading failures.

Fluctuating fluxes on a complex network lead to load fluctuations at the vertices, which may cause them to become overloaded and to induce a cascading failure. A characterization of the one-point load fluctuations is presented, revealing their dependence on the nature of the flux fluctuations and on the underlying network structure. Based on these findings, an alternate robustness layout of the network is proposed.

Proactive robustness control of heterogeneously loaded networks.

A proactive measure to increase the robustness of heterogeneously loaded networks against cascades of overload failures is proposed. It is based on load-dependent weights. Compared to simple hop weights, respective shortest flow paths turn a previously heterogeneous load distribution into a more homogeneous one for the nodes and links of the network.

Finite-size scaling of two-point statistics and the turbulent energy cascade generators.

Within the framework of random multiplicative energy cascade models of fully developed turbulence, finite-size-scaling expressions for two-point correlators and cumulants are derived, taking into account the observationally unavoidable conversion from an ultrametric to an Euclidean two-point distance. The comparison with two-point statistics of the surrogate energy dissipation, extracted from various wind tunnel and atmospheric boundary layer records, allows an accurate deduction of multiscaling exponents and cumulants, even at moderate Reynolds numbers for which simple power-law fits are not feasible. The extracted exponents serve as input for parametric estimates of the probabilistic cascade generator.

Intermittency exponent of the turbulent energy cascade.

We consider the turbulent energy dissipation from one-dimensional records in experiments using air and gaseous helium at cryogenic temperatures, and obtain the intermittency exponent via the two-point correlation function of the energy dissipation. The air data are obtained in a number of flows in a wind tunnel and the atmospheric boundary layer at a height of about 35 m above the ground. The helium data correspond to the centerline of a jet exhausting into a container.