dc.contributor.author	McDonagh, Shane
dc.contributor.author	Deane, Paul
dc.contributor.author	Rajendran, Karthik
dc.contributor.author	Murphy, Jerry D.
dc.contributor.funder	Science Foundation Ireland	en
dc.contributor.funder	Gas Networks Ireland	en
dc.contributor.funder	Ervia, Ireland	en
dc.date.accessioned	2019-05-15T11:16:14Z
dc.date.available	2019-05-15T11:16:14Z
dc.date.issued	2019-04-30
dc.date.updated	2019-05-15T11:05:12Z
dc.description.abstract	Variable renewable electricity (VRE) decarbonises the electricity grid, but its intermittency leads to variations in price, carbon intensity, and curtailment over time. This has led to interest in utilising difficult to manage electricity to produce electrofuels (such as hydrogen via water electrolysis) for transport. The vast majority of the environmental impact of electrofuels is contained in the electricity they consume however, only consuming otherwise curtailed electricity (produced when supply exceeds demand) leads to prohibitively expensive hydrogen due to low run hours. Using a model which bids for wholesale electricity, two operational strategies (controls) aimed at increasing sustainability without requiring policy changes were tested in electricity system models of 40–60% renewable electricity penetration. (1) Bid price control set a maximum price the plant will pay for electricity. (2) Wind forecast control dictated that the plant may only run when a minimum forecast VRE production is met. It was shown that sourcing electricity at times of low cost or high forecast wind power can lead to more decarbonised hydrogen production (up to 56% more) at a lower cost (up to 57% less). When economically optimised (minimising levelised costs) the bid price control reduced the carbon intensity of the electrofuel produced by 5–25%, and the wind forecast control by 14–38%, compared to the grid average. Both controls demonstrated a high proclivity to utilising otherwise curtailed electricity and can be said to aid grid balancing. The bid price control also greatly reduced the average cost of electricity to the plant. The positive impacts increased with renewables penetration, and significant synergies between economic and environmentally conscious operation of the plants were noted. The operational strategies tested in this paper allow for transport fuels to be produced from grid electricity, without exacerbating the mismatch of supply and demand. Future decentralised quasi-storage using these operating strategies may economically produce transport fuel, and aid grid balancing.	en
dc.description.sponsorship	Science Foundation Ireland (16/SP/3829); Gas Networks Ireland (Gas Innovation Group)	en
dc.description.status	Peer reviewed	en
dc.description.version	Accepted Version	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	McDonagh, S., Deane, P., Rajendran, K. and Murphy, J. D. (2019) 'Are electrofuels a sustainable transport fuel? Analysis of the effect of controls on carbon, curtailment, and cost of hydrogen', Applied Energy, 247, pp. 716-730. doi: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.04.060	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.04.060	en
dc.identifier.endpage	730	en
dc.identifier.issn	0306-2619
dc.identifier.journaltitle	Applied Energy	en
dc.identifier.startpage	716	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10468/7914
dc.identifier.volume	247	en
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	Elsevier Ltd.	en
dc.relation.project	info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/SFI/SFI Research Centres/12/RC/2302/IE/Marine Renewable Energy Ireland (MaREI) - The SFI Centre for Marine Renewable Energy Research/	en
dc.relation.uri	http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261919307068
dc.rights	© 2019, Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript version is made available under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.	en
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/	en
dc.subject	Hydrogen	en
dc.subject	Power-to-gas	en
dc.subject	Electrofuel	en
dc.subject	Curtailment	en
dc.subject	Energy storage	en
dc.subject	Sustainability	en
dc.title	Are electrofuels a sustainable transport fuel? Analysis of the effect of controls on carbon, curtailment, and cost of hydrogen	en
dc.type	Article (peer-reviewed)	en

Are electrofuels a sustainable transport fuel? Analysis of the effect of controls on carbon, curtailment, and cost of hydrogen

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