Power-Flow studies on the Future Electricity Grid of Sicily: Analysis of 2030 Scenario Cases

This paper presents the results related to power-flow studies of the Sicilian power grid in different 2030 scenario cases. The analyzed scenario cases incorporate data elaborated by RSE and University of Palermo as well as publicly available data from Terna databases. These datasets have been processed in order to consider the forecasted development of loads and renewable resources in Sicily. The model of the Sicilian power grid, developed in Neplan environment, has been used for simulations: it incorporates the information regarding the infrastructures under authorization and realization by 2030. Simulation outcomes indicate that the Sicilian power grid will experience significant active power flows from renewable generation, leading to local congestion, overloading of some key transformers, and utilization of several transmission lines over 70% of their capacity. These results indicate that the integration of renewable energy generation in the Sicilian power grid poses challenges that will be even more severe in the years to come: this detection represents an important first outcome, to be handled by selecting appropriate solutions.