Switch 2.0 and power pooling - Enquiry

[Mounirah Bissiri]

Dear Sir,

I hope this email finds you well. I have just come across the journal article about Switch 2.0 entitled "Switch 2.0: A modern platform for planning high-renewable power systems" which I find relevant for my doctoral studies. Indeed, I am currently doing a PhD in Sustainable Energy Systems at the University of Coimbra (Portugal). The main objective of my thesis is to develop a decision support model for the integration of renewable energy in the West African power pool (WAPP) to bridge the long-standing electricity supply-demand gap. 

I find it particularly remarkable that the software combines both operational and investment modules with high temporal resolution. However, I could not determine whether it could also allow for multi-country modelling and therefore, cross-border power flows analysis (and if so, to which extent). WAPP comprises 14 mainland countries in West Africa but I will be covering a sub-set of 6-7 countries (mainly for data availability reasons besides computational time and space requirements). 

Thanks in advance for any time and effort to assist me in this regard. I look forward to hearing from you soon. 

Kind regards,

Mounirah

Mounirah Amadou Bissiri (Ms)

PhD Candidate - Sustainable Energy Systems - University of Coimbra

www.linkedin.com/in/mounirahbissiri

“The same boiling water that softens the potato hardens the egg. It's about what you're made of, not the circumstances.”

[Matthias Fripp]

Dear Mounirah,

I am glad to hear you are interested in using Switch. I think that it could be well suited to your project. Switch doesn't make any particular assumptions about the regional connections or boundaries (e.g. international borders). You can define any collection of zones, with varying amounts of transmission capacity between the zones. Then Switch will choose how to design and operate the power system (generators and transmission) to keep supply and demand balanced in each zone at all times. Generally zones are defined for regions that have limited ability to move power between them. If each country has good connections internally but limited connections to neighboring countries, then you could define one zone for each country. If some countries are well connected, you could put two or more countries in the same zone. If there are transmission restrictions within a country, you could split it into multiple zones. 

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.

Matthias

On May 6, 2021, at 10:23 AM, Mounirah Bissiri <moun...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Mounirah Bissiri]

Dear Matthias,

It does help, thanks a lot!

Kind regards,

Mounirah