Marginal Emission Factors in Power Systems: The Case of the Netherlands

Parnian Alikhani, Nico Brinkel, Wouter Schram, Ioannis Lampropoulos, Wilfried van Sark

2023

Abstract

The Marginal Emission Factor (MEF) is a consistent metric with increased accuracy, compared to the average emission factor, to evaluate the avoided emissions as a result of changes in electricity consumption caused by new technologies and policies. In this study, a method is developed to model MEFs by constructing merit order profiles in interconnected power systems. The proposed method is applied in a case study of the Netherlands for the years 2018 to 2022. This method, in contrast to previous studies that developed marginal emission profiles, does not neglect the share of the electricity demand which is met by countries in neighboring bidding zones. In this study, the results suggest that ignoring electricity trading significantly underestimates the marginal emission factors. It is found that the key factors resulting in clear temporal shifts in the marginal emission profiles are fuel and CO 2 prices. Even though the installed capacity of fossil-fueled electricity generation has declined over time, these are mainly the power plants that operate at the margin and often set electricity prices at the wholesale level. Overall, the MEF profiles obtained using the proposed method could be readily employed in detailed evaluations of the emission optimization of distributed power systems to support decarbonization.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Alikhani P., Brinkel N., Schram W., Lampropoulos I. and van Sark W. (2023). Marginal Emission Factors in Power Systems: The Case of the Netherlands. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems - Volume 1: SMARTGREENS, ISBN 978-989-758-651-4, SciTePress, pages 50-57. DOI: 10.5220/0011855700003491

in Bibtex Style

@conference{smartgreens23,
author={Parnian Alikhani and Nico Brinkel and Wouter Schram and Ioannis Lampropoulos and Wilfried van Sark},
title={Marginal Emission Factors in Power Systems: The Case of the Netherlands},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems - Volume 1: SMARTGREENS,},
year={2023},
pages={50-57},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0011855700003491},
isbn={978-989-758-651-4},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems - Volume 1: SMARTGREENS,
TI - Marginal Emission Factors in Power Systems: The Case of the Netherlands
SN - 978-989-758-651-4
AU - Alikhani P.
AU - Brinkel N.
AU - Schram W.
AU - Lampropoulos I.
AU - van Sark W.
PY - 2023
SP - 50
EP - 57
DO - 10.5220/0011855700003491
PB - SciTePress