Optimal carbon-electricity trade-offs through the virtual power plant concept

Abstract To ameliorate the increased challenges relating to renewable energy sources set by European Union targets for the 2020, 2030 and 2050 paradigms, in this work a carbon-electricity model is proposed by making use of a virtual power plant mechanism. The radical configuration is arranged for the islanded power system of Cyprus, by making use of internal combustion engines, steam generators and domestic wind, photovoltaic and biomass units. Using an algorithm relied on mixed-integer linear programming, clean resources integration can be enhanced in a cost-effective manner in terms of total production and emission cost. Based on actual data with respect to load demand and power generation, the proposed concept offers optimal carbon-electricity trade-offs in the presence of storage. Specifically, the annual amount of carbon-dioxide emissions decreases by almost 74,000tn increasing the renewables share from 25.73 to 64.33% at the virtual power plant level. The released emissions are completely eliminated by making use of hydrogen derived by renewable hydrogen pathways in 100% renewable systems. The incomes of the assessed scenarios towards 2050 paradigm of de-carbonization are 81.360 M€ and 112.148 M€ for the respective life-cycle analysis without and with regenerative fuel-cell storage facility. As for future directions to research, a more comprehensive carbon-trading system is indicated to consolidate other Greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon oxide (CO), methane (CH4), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2).