The flexible operation of CO₂ injection wells presents significant challenges. To avoid premature degradation of wells or loss of integrity it is imperative to understand the feed flow patterns that future CO₂ transportation and storage networks will face. We use a unit commitment economic dispatch (UCED) model to study CCS operating regimes in low carbon energy systems scenarios that are characterised by high shares of weather dependent renewable power generation. Using the case study of Great Britain, we determine the extent to which flexible operation of CCS plants is required, resulting in variable CO₂ flows that need to be accommodated by future CO₂ transportation and storage networks. We find that around 21% and 12% of the net flow rate changes over 6h-periods in the core scenario have greater amplitudes than 30% and 50% of nominal flow, respectively. When changes are averaged over two consecutive blocks of 6 h, representing the smoothing effect achievable via line-packing over a pipeline of reasonable length and diameter, around 9% of the net changes have greater amplitudes than 40% of nominal flow. Given the high and frequent fluctuations in feed flows across all considered scenarios, further research is urgently required on the capability of transportation and storage networks to accommodate variable CO₂ flow rates.

CO ₂注入井的灵活操作提出了重大挑战。为了避免井的过早降解或完整性丧失，必须了解将来的CO ₂运输和存储网络将面临的进料流型。我们使用单位承诺经济调度（UCED）模型来研究低碳能源系统情景中的CCS运行机制，这些情景的特点是取决于天气的可再生能源发电所占的比例很高。通过英国的案例研究，我们确定了CCS工厂需要灵活运行的程度，从而导致将来的CO ₂需要适应可变的CO ₂流量。运输和存储网络。我们发现，在核心方案中，在6小时内，约21％和12％的净流量变化幅度大于名义流量的30％和50％。如果在两个连续的6小时块中对变化进行平均，代表通过合理长度和直径的管道上的管线装填可达到的平滑效果，则大约9％的净变化幅度大于标称流量的40％。考虑到在所有考虑的情况下进料流量的频繁波动，迫切需要对运输和存储网络适应变化的CO ₂流量的能力进行进一步的研究。