Description of the ifeu electricity model (ELMO) for the calculation of LCI datasets for power supply and district heating and cooling

Authors: Thomas Fröhlich, Nabil Abdalla, Axel Liebich, Sabrina Ludmann, Horst Fehrenbach

The “master network” for the modelling of environmental impacts related to electricity pro- duction and transmission grids has been maintained and developed at ifeu since 2001. This network is set up in the material flow environment Umberto 5.6. The ELMO model includes several generic power plant types and raw material upstream processes and allows for a flexible approach to all types of network composition, be it na- tional networks, group based or other special scenarios (future or marginal mixes). Easy ad- aptation of the model to different investigation settings is achieved by a high level of para- metrization. Among others, the adjustable parameters comprise the mix of primary energy sources, information about the raw material origin as well as a number of technical factors like electrical and thermal efficiency, exhaust gas treatment, transmission and distribution- related losses. The system boundary of the model includes all energy and material flows related to the supply of electricity, district heating and district cooling; from the extraction of energy re- sources, transport, power plant processes to the distribution of electricity to the power out- let. The network includes power plants, combined heat and power (CHP) generation plants, heating plants and cooling plants. The share of district heat as a co-product of electricity production is adjustable according to the power plant type. An allocation of the burdens to electricity and district heating is performed by several adjustable methods (e.g. exergy con- tent, energy content, market price). Non-coupled production of district heat is covered by modelling of separate heating plants in the same way as for electricity supply, including heat pumps. District cooling is modelled using the supply mix of both electricity and district heat in either adsorption or vapor-compression chillers. Results for electricity are calculated for an amount of 1 kWh electric energy (functional unit), either at production (excluding transmission losses) or at consumer (including transmission losses), in either of the three voltage levels (high voltage 110-380 kV, medium voltage 10- 35 kV, low voltage 100-240 V). Results for district heating and cooling are provided for 1 kWh thermal energy/cooling energy either at production (excluding transmission / distri- bution losses) or at consumer (including transmission / distribution losses).