Intelligent, Flexible production in an Energy System Dominated by Renewables.

It is well known that the electricity price varies between days but also within
the day, sometimes even resulting in negative prices. Flexible production units
could take advantage of those variations by adapting the production accordingly. However, few studies exists that compare the cost effectiveness of different types of production units while taking these within day price variations into account.
This paper studies intelligent, flexible production units in comparison to statically scheduled units in the context of the scandinavian power system.
Specifically, we study production of ammonia, a chemical process that only uses air, water and electricity. The ammonia can be used as fuel or to produce
nitrogen fertilizers. We derive optimal production strategies for such unit using Model Predictive Control.
The strategies were evaluated on historical data from Nord Pool. We found
that the Nord Pool region in general and DK1 in particular is well suited for production of ammonia, due to the relatively low cost for electricity. Furthermore, the results improve substantialy when considering flexible strategies that can benefit from the variability in the electricity price.