Comparison of different methods of spatial disaggregation of electricity generation and consumption time series

Abstract

We present a methodology to compare regionalization techniques of input data for photovoltaics, wind and electrical load for energy system models. We also compare data assignment techniques to the power grid nodes. We further introduce two invariants to evaluate the outcome of the regionalization process at the NUTS 3 level (one invariant for the annual profiles and one for the installed capacities). This methodology is applied to compare regionalization and assignment workflows of eight different German energy system models using simple parameters, without explicit knowledge of grid topology. Our results show that the resolution of the input data and the use of a top-down or a bottom-up approach are the most determinant factors in the regionalization process. This work done as part of the project MODEX-Net.