In January 2025, Professor Tooraj Jamasb from Copenhagen School of Energy Infrastructure (CSEI) has co-authored a new academic article with Daniel Davi-Arderius, member of the Chair of Energy Sustainability (Barcelona Institute of Economics – IEB), titled: “Technology Determinants of Renewables Curtailment: The Case of Spain”.
This contribution analyzes the technological drivers behind renewable energy curtailments in the Spanish power system and it has been shown how the increasing share of RES in the electricity mix requires operators to intervene to ensure grid security and operational constraints.
Through an empirical assessment of re-dispatching processes in 2024, the paper identifies the main operational factors causing curtailments and offers a comprehensive set of policy recommendations to reduce associated economic costs and CO₂ emissions, such as introducing more granular locational signals (e.g., nodal pricing or dynamic network charges), optimizing current operational rules for curtailment and activation decisions, enhancing grid planning and investment processes, developing new ancillary services to address voltage control and adequacy reserves, implementing stricter technical standards for inverter-based RES (IBRs), and considering alternative cost-recovery schemes to fairly distribute system costs between consumers and generators.
In a context where renewables represented 56% of annual electricity generation in Spain, this work offers timely insights on the technical and regulatory challenges of operating highly decarbonized electricity systems.
The full article is now available for download from the latest issue of the IAEE Energy Forum.