MAPSEN – Methods and Analyses to Determine the Impact of Decentralized Prosumers and Energy Storage on Germany’s Power Generation and Electricity Grid

System-analytical studies on energy systems show that energy storage systems will play an important role in balancing the demand and supply in energy systems with a high share of renewables.  At the same time, both private and institutional players involved in the energy transformation are interested in initiating and continually increasing storage projects. Many private, but also professional investors are becoming so-called "prosumers" who produce and (partly) consume their own electricity. This project aims to investigate the influence of an increasing number of prosumers on the German energy system.

For this purpose, an investigation shall be carried out to analyze the effect of widespread prosumers with their own electricity storage, but also of increased electricity use for electric vehicles or heat generation, on electricity generation and the electricity grid in Germany. Two main R&D approaches make up the core elements of this proposal:

1.       Develop approaches for the implementation and integration of different, decentralized storage facilities (and their business models) in energy system models (ENTIGRIS and ENTIGRIS-Unit)

2.       Further development of the models MILES and InDiGo for network simulation to determine the effects of decentralized storage systems on the grid (transmission and distribution grids)

The developments will make it possible to map the various prosumers and their technical solutions (individual prosumers, virtual power plants and larger storage units at different grid levels) in the energy system and grid simulation model. Thus, both the overall systemic effects as well as the impact on the distribution and transmission grids – especially at the network transfer points – and on the electricity market can be analyzed. The results will be used to analyze both the effect of these developments as well as the prosumer’s behavioral changes (and decentralized storage patterns) on the system and vice versa. Since behavioral changes, in particular, are controlled by economic incentives and external framework conditions, the influence of alterations in the regulatory framework conditions are to be analyzed accordingly.