Eoles, an open-source energy model for studying low-carbon scenarios - Application to the négaWatt scenario
We present the latest version of the energy system optimisation model Eoles and utilise it to study whether the energy mix of the négaWatt 2022 scenario manages to meet demand for 2050 in France, for 19 meteorological years. We find that even without recourse to interconnections, electricity demand only exceeds production for 3 to 4 hours a year on average, which does not exceed the fault criteria set out in the French Energy Code. To eliminate any hour of failure, an additional 13.2~GW of dispatchable technologies is required, which corresponds to a 37\% increase compared to the négaWatt scenario. We then study the addition of three disptachable technologies: methane turbines, hydrogen turbines and batteries, that are all close in terms of total system cost. In addition, electricity balance can be achieved even if the photovoltaic capacity is reduced compared with the negaWatt scenario. The associated gain (€5.5~bn./year) is significantly higher than the additional cost of the dispatchable capacity mentioned above (around €1~bn./year).