The long term potential for electricity and gas grids integration in France

Abstract : To respond to the sustainability challenge, future electric systems are expected to be essentially based on low carbon solutions and also to be more flexible in order to balance supply and demand with more variable renewables. Among the options to achieve these goals a higher integration of electricity and natural gas grids could be beneficial. The operational reactivity of gas power plants could help balance the intermittency of solar and wind. Conversely, in a power to gas mode, excess electricity could be stored as hydrogen in the gas grid or even converted to synthetic methane using captured carbon dioxide. In this study we will focus on the condition of such an interaction for the future French power system by 2050. Using a LP framework to model the electricity and gas supply/demand problem, we will discuss investment and operational decisions (at an hourly resolution) for representative days and seasons.