An Indian electricity system with very high shares of solar photovoltaics seems to be a\nplausible future given the ever-falling solar photovoltaic (PV) costs, recent Indian auction prices,\nand governmental support schemes. However, the variability of solar PV electricity, i.e., the seasonal,\ndaily, and other weather-induced variations, could create an economic barrier. In this paper,\nwe analyzed a strategy to overcome this barrier with demand-side management (DSM) by lending\nflexibility to the rapidly increasing electricity demand for air conditioning through either precooling\nor chilled water storage. With an open-source power sector model, we estimated the endogenous\ninvestments into and the hourly dispatching of these demand-side options for a broad range of\npotential PV shares in the Indian power system in 2040. We found that both options reduce the\nchallenges of variability by shifting electricity demand from the evening peak to midday, thereby\nreducing the temporal mismatch of demand and solar PV supply profiles. This increases the economic\nvalue of solar PV, especially at shares above 40%, the level at which the economic value roughly\ndoubles through demand flexibility. Consequently, DSM increases the competitive and cost-optimal........................
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