Electricity storage and inter-regional transmission are expected to play a greater role in mitigating the power surplus caused by the large-scale introduction of solar power generation. In this study, we evaluate the impacts of these two power arbitrages and provide their welfare implications. We develop a simple analytical framework based on the demand and supply in the power market, and apply the framework to Kyushu area in Japan to quantify the social benefits of current storage and transmission practice. We estimate electricity demand curves and define supply curves from the data to describe the social impacts of the two arbitrages. Our main findings can be summarized as follows. First, the estimation results indicate that the price elasticity of electricity demand is −0.228 and −0.252 in high and low solar hours, respectively. Second, the results show that the current storage and transmission operations provide social benefits of 73,000 and 59,000 USD per day, respectively. Third, both arbitrages lead to external benefits by reducing CO2 emissions from thermal power generation. These results suggest that the current storage and transmission operations provide positive social benefits without detrimental effects on consumer, producer or environment. Therefore, both storage and transmission are preferable measures for mitigating the impact of variable solar power generation on society and the environment.

中文翻译：

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电力储存还是传输？比较电力套利之间的社会福利


电力储存和区域间传输有望在缓解大规模引入太阳能发电造成的电力过剩方面发挥更大的作用。在本研究中，我们评估了这两种权力套利的影响，并提供了它们的福利影响。我们根据电力市场的需求和供应开发了一个简单的分析框架，并将该框架应用于日本九州地区，以量化当前存储和输电实践的社会效益。我们估计电力需求曲线并根据数据定义供应曲线，以描述两种套利的社会影响。我们的主要发现可以总结如下。首先，估计结果表明，在高太阳能小时数和低太阳能小时数下，电力需求的价格弹性分别为 −0.228 和 −0.252。其次，结果表明，目前的存储和传输操作每天分别提供 73,000 和 59,000 美元的社会效益。第三，这两种套利都通过减少火力发电的二氧化碳排放而带来外部利益。这些结果表明，当前的储存和传输操作提供了积极的社会效益，而不会对消费者、生产者或环境产生不利影响。因此，储存和输电都是减轻可变太阳能发电对社会和环境影响的首选措施。