PROJECT TITLE :

Investigating the impact of unanticipated market and construction delays on the development of a meshed HVDC grid using dynamic transmission planning

ABSTRACT:

This study presents a market-based dynamic transmission planning framework for the development of a meshed offshore voltage source converter-high voltage direct current (VSC-HVDC) grid. Such a grid is foreseen for integrating offshore wind and electricity trade functions among the North Sea countries. The proposed model seeks to maximise the social welfare of all zones and to minimise the investment capital of transmission infrastructure subject to technical and economic constraints. It determines the optimal grid design, as well as grid topology and transmission capacities for each development stage. The transmission capacities are set in such a means that congestion revenues collected throughout the lifetime of the infrastructure project pay off the investment cost of building the grid. The model is employed to analyze the impact of unanticipated delay constraints because of technical (e.g. unavailability of DC breakers), economic (e.g. provide chain shortages) and legal obstacles (e.g. heterogeneous allowing criteria). It's quantified how (i) longer delays lead to larger social welfare losses; (ii) completely different countries will be affected differently by the delays and thus have unequal incentives for solving them; (iii) the length of the delay affects the capability of cross-border connections. Numerical results are interpreted in economic terms and permit appraisal of the effectiveness of the proposed approach.