The value of sector coupling for the development of offshore power grids
- Juan Gea Bermúdez ,
- Lena Kitzing ,
- Matti Juhani Koivisto ,
- Kaushik Das ,
- Poul Ejnar Sørensen
Abstract
Offshore grids can have an important role in the transition of the
energy system to sustainability. Although they require extensive
infrastructure investments, they open up for the exploitation of a vast
amount of additional resources and may be important to provide for part
of the increasing electricity demand driven by sector coupling between
the electricity, heat, and transport sectors. We show that the level of
such sector coupling is decisive for the development of offshore grids.
Performing energy system
optimization in a model application of the Northern-central European
energy system and the North Sea offshore grid towards 2050, we find that
without sector coupling no offshore grid may develop, and that the
higher the level of sector coupling, the higher the value of offshore
grids. The electrification of the transport sector favors offshore grid
development more than the electrification of the heat sector. Offshore
grid infrastructure development can therefore not be discussed as a
separate political topic, but seen in
connection to sector coupling.