Project description
Why AFEM?
To provide an assessment of the feasibility of integrating renewable energy sources into the grid, since current market models, in the long run of the Energy Strategy 2050, will no longer deliver the right investment incentives for the electricity market.
Goals and vision
The goal of the AFEM research project was to analyse the current design of the electricity market in Switzerland and Europe today. AFEM then identified shortcomings both of the existing setup and the additions of capacity markets or capacity payments. AFEM developed new models to analyse the specific behaviour of future electricity supply systems in which renewable energy sources (RES) are likely to be deployed on a large scale.
Research questions
To answer the three main research questions:
- How will the Swiss and European electricity market evolve if the existing market mechanism (energy only market, reserve market) be perpetuated as is?
- How will the market evolve if additional market components such as capacity markets are introduced?
- How do future market models need to be designed in order to give the “right” investment incentive (e.g. flexibility markets) for an efficient yet carbon-free electricity supply system?
Under the following operational constraints:
- Defined level of Security of Supply
- Reduced CO2-Emissions
Aiming at increased share of Renewable Energy Sources
Overall concept and model framework
The joint project AFEM is set up with three sub-projects:
- Infrastructure for Future Electricity Markets” (AFEM-INFRA)
- Combining Electricity Models (AFEM-MODEL)
- Future Electricity Market Models (AFEM-FUTURE)
After the project kick-off at the end of 2014, the Energy Science Center (ESC) coordinated and managed these sub-projects under the AFEM-UMBRELLA. The ESC continued to carry out the project management activities until the final hand-in of the project report in 2018.
Collaborations:
NFP-70: IMES, SCCER-SoE, SCCER-FURIES, SCCER-CREST, SCCER-Mobility, NeXus platform.