  Large-scale centralized development of wind and solar energy and peer-to-grid
transmission of renewable energy source (RES) via high voltage direct current
(HVDC) has been regarded as one of the most promising ways to achieve goals of
peak carbon and carbon neutrality in China. Traditionally, large-scale thermal
generation is needed to economically support the load demand of HVDC with a
given profile, which in turn raises concerns about carbon emissions. To address
the issues above, hydrogen energy storage system (HESS) and ammonia energy
storage system (AESS) are introduced to gradually replace thermal generation,
which is represented as a multi-stage expansion planning (MSEP) problem.
Specifically, first, HESS and AESS are established in the MSEP model with
carbon emission reduction constraints, and yearly data with hourly time
resolution are utilized for each stage to well describe the intermittence of
RES. Then, a combined Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition (DWD) and column generation
(CG) solution approach is proposed to efficiently solve the large-scale MSEP
model. Finally, a real-life system in China is studied. The results indicate
that HESS and AESS have the potential to handle the intermittence of RES, as
well as the monthly imbalance between RES and load demand. Especially under the
goal of carbon neutrality, the contribution of HESS and AESS in reducing
levelized cost of energy (LCOE) reaches 12.28% and 14.59%, respectively, which
finally leads to a LCOE of 0.4324 RMB/kWh.
