Electricitymap-contrib: Add curtailment data?

[robertahunt]

As wind and solar curtailment become more prevalent, tracking and understanding how curtailment fits into the energy transition becomes more and more important.

So, is this something we should track?

I am thinking something like changing production parsers to be able to add curtailment:

    {
      'zoneKey': 'FR',
      'datetime': '2017-01-01T00:00:00Z',
      'production': {
          'biomass': 0.0,
          'coal': 0.0,
          'gas': 0.0,
          'hydro': 0.0,
          'nuclear': null,
          'oil': 0.0,
          'solar': 0.0,
          'wind': 0.0,
          'geothermal': 0.0,
          'unknown': 0.0
      },
      'storage': {
          'hydro': -10.0,
      },
     'curtailment': {
          'wind': 0,
          'solar': -10
     },
      'source': 'mysource.com'
    }

Although there are not many places where curtailment is reported, I noticed that japan has a time series for it (although as far as I can tell it has always been 0). I wonder if Germany or other countries that use curtailment more often report it somewhere?

Thumbs up if you like the idea :) Comments/Crits welcome

[DiegoRioboCabot]

How would curtailment impact on CO2 emissions? Most of the times, curtailment happens when the demand is too low and there's an offer surplus.

I believe you have I point. I just don't know what we would be measuring or how to measure it's impact.

Maybe curtailment should be linked to the ability (or inability) of renewable generators to offer the Primary Frequency Regulation service, which would involve battery banks

[robertahunt]

It's a good point. I don't think curtailment affects average CO2 emissions, but it is important for us to understand if wind or solar are on the margin or not, and by proxy what the marginal CO2 emissions are (answering the question - if you added or removed 1 MW demand to the grid, what plant would that come from). Usually wind and solar are not on the margin because they do not respond to demand, but if we know wind is currently curtailed, it is easy to argue if you increased demand at that time, the extra power would probably comes from wind/solar.

[robertahunt]

But it seems like there isn't much enthusiasm for this anyways, so I am closing the idea!

[alixunderplatz]

@robertahunt although you have already closed, here is one site for regional congestion in Germany with 24h history:
https://www.netzampel.energy/home
select an area to view county-wise data. so far the following 110kV distribution system operator's (e.on owned) are disclosing their data: SH-Netz, avacon, e.dis and bayernwerke
they don't have a feature to view wind or solar layers, I always thought about creating something like it. no info on which type is affected, but mostly it's wind farms which have to reduce output.
the large TSOs should also report the redispatced and curtailed amounts on https://netztransparenz.de

[alixunderplatz]

@robertahunt and here is one more website for D-1 East German line load: https://www.50hertz.com/de/Transparenz/Kennzahlen/Netzdaten/Netzbelastung/
Watch many lines turn orange/red on windy days ;). AFAIK large accessible json dataset of the data you see. again no layer of windspeed or irradiation to create more context.
by the way: curtailment can go up to a few GW sometimes, which are usually comoensated by fossil sources on the other side of the congested part, so I think there is an impact on CO2 for sure. DM me on slack if you have ideas to use any of these links. ive been thinking about using such data and making something useful from it for the public for quite a while, happy to help ! :)

[robertahunt]

Thanks for these. This is really cool. Do you know if ENTSOE accounts for curtailment in its numbers already (I assume they account for it, but maybe you know for sure)? Or are we actually missing this data? I'd also like to use the data and make it more visible. I'll reopen this and see if there is any more garnered interest. I dont have any more ideas off the top of my head other than making it more visible on electricity map and using it to improve our marginal carbon intensity calculations. You?!

[westurner]

How would curtailment impact on CO2 emissions? Most of the times, curtailment happens when the demand is too low and there's an offer surplus.

Curtailment somewhat-directly affects demand for new renewable capacity: if a utility is generating excess supply, shouldn't the price and thus the margin decrease?

Broader availability of intraday rates could help consumers buy renewables when there is excess supply (that we're currently unable to store due to insufficient grid-scale energy storage).

Demand that can scale up to ensure renewable-specific demand and capitalize upon e.g. intraday rates should further increase the sustainability of the "buy renewables because they're cost-rational (and environment-rational)" pitch.

(Edit) (Given that creating demand for renewables offsets wasteful environmental contamination with CO² and other unwanted chemicals)