In order to cut greenhouse-gas emissions and increase energy security, the European Commission stimulates the deployment of intermittent renewable energy sources (IRES) towards 2050. In an electricity system with high shares of IRES implemented in the network, energy balancing like storage is needed to secure grid stability and smooth demand satisfaction. Pumped hydro storage (PHS) is at this moment the best option for large scale storage. Switzerland has strong ambitions to further develop their PHS sector and become the battery of Europe. In this research, the potential of the Swiss PSH plants is explored, whilst taking inflow into the upper reservoirs of the PHS plants into consideration. To simulate electricity imbalance, Germany is used as a case study. Germany already has a high penetration of IRES and has plans to increase installed IRES capacity. By using an energy planning model (PowerPlan), three future scenarios of the German electricity system were designed, each with a different set of IRES installed (solar, mixed and wind). Results show that the Swiss battery ambition offers most benefits to a wind-oriented scenario, reducing both shortages as well as surpluses. Water inflow in Swiss PHS-reservoirs is of minor importance when looking at security of supply, although it was shown that the solar-scenario profits more from inflow in terms of system stability. However, a potential conflict was observed in the solar-scenario between the need for electricity storage and the storage of natural inflow, resulting in more surpluses in the system when inflow was taken into account.

With the integration of Intermitted Renewables Energy (I-RE) electricity production, capacity is shifting from central to decentral. So, the question is if it is also necessary to adjust the current load balancing system from a central to more decentral system. Therefore, an assessment is made on the overall effectiveness and costs of decentralized load balancing, using Flexible Renewable Energy (F-RE) in the shape of biogas, Demand Side Management (DSM), Power Curtailment (PC), and electricity Storage (ST) compared to increased grid capacity (GC). As a case, an average municipality in The Netherlands is supplied by 100% I-RE (wind and solar energy), which is dynamically modeled in the PowerPlan model using multiple scenarios including several combinations of balancing technologies. Results are expressed in yearly production mix, self-consumption, grid strain, Net Load Demand Signal, and added cost. Results indicate that in an optimized scenario, self-consumption of the municipality reaches a level of around 95%, the total hours per year production matches demand to over 90%, and overproduction can be curtailed without substantial losses lowering grid strain. In addition, the combination of balancing technologies also lowers the peak load to 60% of the current peak load in the municipality, thereby freeing up capacity for increased demand (e.g., electric heat pumps, electric cars) or additional I-RE production. The correct combination of F-RE and lowering I-RE production to 60%, ST, and PC are shown to be crucial. However, the direct use of DSM has proven ineffective without a larger flexible demand present in the municipality. In addition, the optimized scenario will require a substantial investment in installations and will increase the energy cost with 75% in the municipality (e.g., from 0.20€ to 0.35€ per kWh) compared to 50% (0.30€ per kWh) for GC. Within this context, solutions are also required on other levels of scale (e.g., on middle or high voltage side or meso and macro level) to ensure security of supply and/or to reduce overall costs.

Energy transition includes the substitution of centralized energy systems with decentralized variable renewable energy sources (vRES), the growth of which brings drawbacks such as grid congestion and intermittency. These issues are increasingly troublesome in many local energy systems, including in The Netherlands. Biogas may provide options to provide backup renewable energy in times of energy supply uncertainty. In The Netherlands, the consideration of biogas in such functions is limited. Meanwhile, local energy initiatives (LEIs) are spearheading the adoption of vRES. Because of concern over local grid balancing, LEIs may want or need to innovate and diversify their activities. Such innovation could include bioenergy in general, and biogas specifically. However, only a small number of LEIs consider bioenergy, and Dutch LEIs seem hesitant to venture into biogas specifically. In this paper we explore the question of what hinders adoption of biogas in The Netherlands in general, and by LEIs specifically, deploying an approach based on the technological innovation systems (TIS) concept. In that approach, we take insights from current and expected policy in The Netherlands juxtaposed with insights from similar countries surrounding The Netherlands. We conclude that historic developments in biogas already created a moderately supportive platform for large-scale biogas development, but some essential factors remain inadequately developed. Key barriers to biogas innovation, especially for LEIs, are insufficient mobilization of financial and knowledge resources, and insufficient attention to alleviating preconceptions. Dependable support and attention for socio-economic factors in policymaking would improve conditions associated with resources, preconceptions and resistance, and the situation for LEIs to explore the potential of biogas. However, it remains uncertain whether such measures would be sufficient to improve the potential of local biogas utilization in The Netherlands in a way that opens a role for biogas in solving energy transition challenges such as energy system balancing.