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Introduction

Observations

EUPHEMIA, the power market coupling operational algorithm, implements "de-optimization" rules to define failure sharing between market areas when necessary (to ensure exact equity in failure sharing) - this is the adequacy patch.

This algorithm is currently not used in the Projected Supply Estimate (PSE) studies.

The lack of the adequacy patch became a visible problem in some Antares studies with the Flow-Based modeling introduction. Previously, this problem could be bypassed using a hurdle costs mechanism (small costs added to interconnections) limiting the exports from a failing area. Yet, this bypass does not apply to Flow-Based borders.

Moreover, failure sharing rules (even outside of the Flow-Based domain) are not correctly accounted for by the hurdle costs which prioritize failure treatment in countries directly connected to those with margins, at the expense of failure treatment in the furthest countries.

The consequences are the following:

  • France can export and artificially put itself in failure with those exports or, on the contrary, import too much from other countries and transmit its failure to them;

  • The failure number of hours in France and in the other European countries is not correct (a priori under-estimated for France);

  • If at least one area is failing, exchanges are distorted. Yet, currently the interconnections contribution to the capacity mechanism is calculated from imports simulated during the hours when France is in failure.

In the context of coal and nuclear power plants decommissioning in France and Europe, the cases of simultaneous failures tend to increase. The problem related to the lack of adequacy patch is therefore more visible. Thus, in the 2019 exercise using the most unfavorable configurations, France could export in half of the failure situations encountered.

In a context of shrinking capacity margins, the issue of managing simultaneous failure in Supply and Demand Balance studies must therefore be addressed.

Previous work at RTE/R&D and framework for 2020

Initial work has already been initiated by RTE/R&D:

  • In 2017, a post-processing R package for the Antares simulation outputs of CWE zone countries was developed. This post-processing enabled the ability to "re-distribute" the CWE zone failure (when there is one). This post-processing was not used in the PSE simulations and its functioning has since been questioned (the adequacy patch must target all borders and not only the CWE zone).

  • A detailed analysis of the functioning of the curtailment sharing rules implemented in EUPHEMIA was performed in 2019 (as part of the PSE 19 project). Following this analysis, an initial prototype was developed, allowing the reproduction of the behavior of EUPHEMIA on a given failure step.

This work must be taken up and continued by RTE/R&D, in collaboration with the PSE teams. The definition of a specific work program on this subject has made it possible to set achievable objectives in the short and medium term to address this issue.

Firstly, the required adaption of the prototype to the PSE simulation processing: processing of all failing hours, determination of the number of failing hours, and the post adequacy patch flow is required

The prototype can then be "industrialized" to optimize its performances and make it easily usable by the operational teams.

If the progress of the work is not compatible with the planning of the PSE 2020 or PSE 2021, the adequacy patch could be used later, for the update of the parameters of the capacity mechanism, at the beginning of 2021 (contribution of the interconnections, cf. parameter update package).

The industrialized version has been realizedproduced in the form of a new R package is and is described in the following chapters.

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