Identifying Drivers of Energy Storage Demand in the German Power System

An In-Depth Analysis of the Whole-Systems Cost Minimisation Model IMAKUS

Partner E.ON Innovation Center Energy Storage
E.ON Energy Storage GmbH
Zeitraum April 2013 bis März 2014
Ansprechpartner Dr.-Ing. Peter Tzscheutschler


IMAKUS is a techno-economic model of the German power system, which was developed at Lehrstuhl für Energiewirtschaft und Anwendungstechnik to optimise investments into conventional generation and storage assets. A primary objective of this study is to critically examine the applied methodological approach and the quality of results obtained from the model IMAKUS.

A comprehensive literature review is conducted and the methodological approach of IMAKUS is compared with approaches of recent system level studies on energy storage demand. The influence of methodology and assumptions on modelling results is analysed qualitatively. As the variation of electricity demand and share of generation from renewable energy sources (RES) has already shown a strong influence on storage demand in earlier studies, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to quantify the influence of selected input parameters and identify the drivers for storage demand in Germany. Furthermore, this study investigates to what extent investment decisions obtained from a whole-systems cost minimisation approach are also profitable from an investor’s perspective.