Strategies for Corporate Renewable Energy Procurement: Towards a 24/7 Matching of Supply and Demand
PhD candidate: Gülin Yurter
In recent years, many companies have committed to renewable energy targets, typically aiming to source a certain percentage of their annual electricity consumption from renewable sources by a future date. While these annual goals are important, they do not guarantee that renewable energy is available exactly when electricity is needed. As a result, there can still be hourly mismatches between renewable generation and electricity demand, making it difficult to fully decarbonize electricity use. To address this challenge, this research focuses on 24/7 renewable energy procurement, which aims to match electricity consumption with renewable generation on an hourly basis. Traditionally, companies rely on power purchase agreements (PPAs) to meet renewable energy targets. However, achieving 24/7 matching likely requires combining PPAs with additional strategies such as energy storage, demand-side flexibility, and time-stamped energy certificates. This project studies how companies can design such procurement strategies under uncertainty in electricity prices, demand patterns, and renewable generation. Using real-world data and analytical methods from stochastic programming and reinforcement learning, the research aims to provide insights into both the strategic and operational decisions required for reliable 24/7 renewable energy procurement
