New Interconnection Perspectives for Electrical Energy Exchange between Europe and North Africa
Swiss partners
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ZHAW: Petr Korba (main applicant), Dr. Felix Rafael Segundo Sevilla, Dr. Miguel Ramirez Gonzalez
Partners in the MENA region
- Université Ibn Khaldoun de Tiaret, Algérie: Mokhtar Benasla (main applicant), Tayeb Alaoui
Presentation of the project
The idea of transferring solar electricity from North Africa to Europe was proposed and developed in 2003. Several studies were conducted to quantify the technological and economic dimensions of such a vast project which was found to be technically feasible.
These studies were followed by several initiatives, e.g. promoting the deployment of cross- Mediterranean High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) links to enable the transfer of electricity between North Africa and Europe (in particular, the Mediterranean Solar Plan (MSP) in 2008, DESERTEC in 2009 and MEDGRID in 2010). It has been demonstrated that as electricity imports from North Africa increases, the need for conventional power plants (e.g. gas-fired power plants) and electrical storage capacity will gradually decrease and the dispatchable renewable imports will have a positive impact on the European power markets.
However, all these studies and various initiatives launched over the past years have failed to attract the required attention of decision-makers because it was not clear how would Europe benefit from the import of electricity from North Africa compared to the domestic renewable sources - in addition, there is no framework on how exactly the import of dispatchable electricity should be implemented and operated to achieve it.
The project investigated to what extent and how the option of importing solar electricity from North Africa via HVDC links could help Europe meet the challenges of ensuring stability and security of its power system with a higher share of variable renewable energy sources. These benefits would be validated trough exhaustive number of simulations using the initial dynamic model of continental Europe coupled with the dynamic model of North Africa. Due to its fast controllability, the HVDC link can be used to enhance the stability and security of its associated AC systems. The main objective here is to demonstrate that the option of HVDC links with North Africa provides superior benefits than other available flexibility sources in Europe. An investigation will be conducted to determine which HVDC technology is appropriate and cost-effective to interconnect North African countries with Europe.
More on the project