REMIND-PyPSA-Eur: Integrating power system flexibility into sector-coupled energy transition pathways

Abstract

The rapid expansion of low-cost renewable electricity combined with end-use electrification in transport, industry, and buildings offers a promising path to deep decarbonisation. However, aligning variable supply with demand requires strategies for daily and seasonal balancing. Existing models either lack the wide scope required for long-term transition pathways or the spatio-temporal detail to capture power system variability and flexibility. Here, we combine the complementary strengths of REMIND, a long-term integrated assessment model, and PyPSA-Eur, an hourly energy system model, through a bi-directional, price-based and iterative soft coupling. REMIND provides pathway variables such as sectoral electricity demand, installed capacities, and costs to PyPSA-Eur, which returns optimised operational variables such as capacity factors, storage requirements, and relative prices. After sufficient convergence, this integrated approach jointly optimises long-term investment and short-term operation. We demonstrate the coupling for two Germany-focused scenarios, with and without demand-side flexibility, reaching climate neutrality by 2045. Our results confirm that a sector-coupled energy system with nearly 100\% renewable electricity is technically possible and economically viable. Power system flexibility influences long-term pathways through price differentiation: supply-side market values vary by generation technology, while demand-side prices vary by end-use sector. Flexible electrolysers and smart-charging electric vehicles benefit from below-average prices, whereas less flexible heat pumps face almost twice the average price due to winter peak loads. Without demand-side flexibility, electricity prices increase across all end-users, though battery deployment partially compensates. Our approach therefore fully integrates power system dynamics into multi-decadal energy transition pathways.

References in corpus (20)

• Synergies of sector coupling and transmission reinforcement in a cost-optimised, highly renewable European energy system
• PyPSA: Python for Power System Analysis
• The green hydrogen ambition and implementation gap
• PyPSA-Eur: An Open Optimisation Model of the European Transmission System
• The Benefits of Cooperation in a Highly Renewable European Electricity Network
• The Potential Role of a Hydrogen Network in Europe
• The role of storage technologies throughout the decarbonisation of the sector-coupled European energy system
• Speed of technological transformations required in Europe to achieve different climate goals
• Import options for chemical energy carriers from renewable sources to Germany
• Endogenous learning for green hydrogen in a sector-coupled energy model for Europe
• PyPSA-Earth. A New Global Open Energy System Optimization Model Demonstrated in Africa
• Approximating Power Flow and Transmission Losses in Coordinated Capacity Expansion Problems
• On Wholesale Electricity Prices and Market Values in a Carbon-Neutral Energy System
• Designing a sector-coupled European energy system robust to 60 years of historical weather data
• H${}_2$ and CO${}_2$ Network Strategies for the European Energy System
• Power sector benefits of flexible heat pumps
• Little to lose: the case for a robust European green hydrogen strategy
• Price formation without fuel costs: the interaction of demand elasticity with storage bidding
• Measuring the Dunkelflaute: How (not) to analyze variable renewable energy shortage
• Bidirectional coupling of a long-term integrated assessment model REMIND v3.0.0 with an hourly power sector model DIETER v1.0.2