INTRODUCTION ON MODELING

1.10

Exercise: Ensure a balance in your first model

In your first model exercise we ask you to satisfy the electricity demand of our little example country by providing sufficient power plant capacities.

First look at this screenshot of what you should see when you click on the link of the exercise below:

screenshot of exercise 1

Screenshot of simulation-exercise 1.

By adjusting the sliders for the different plant types you can increase or decrease the installed capacity of the specific plants. In addition, you will have to decide in which order your fossil and nuclear power plants are to be used if they are needed.

You will need to ensure sufficient supply over all four hours representing the usual dynamics over summer and winter day and night.

Be aware that your renewables will not produce the same amount of energy in each hour. This reflects the intermittent nature of wind and solar generation. You can install 1 gigawatt (GW) of capacity but if the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing you will not be able to produce energy with your 1 GW in this specific hour. So expect to get more energy out of your photovoltaic (PV) plants during summer and not much during nighttime.

Note: if you want to keep a certain result for later use we suggest that you make a screenshot (Command-Shift-3 for Mac or CTRL+PrtScn for Windows) and download it.


Exercise

Your first model: ensure a balance