Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
2
Energy, Utilities and Chemicals the way we see it
like the noise of the trucks and the kind of forecasting. Forecasting the generate power. People mostly do not
look of the facility in their industrial output of V-Cent is critical, as it like to live in areas with strong and
neighborhood. The facility exceeded determines when to fire up the large steady winds, it makes living tougher.
every standard that could be applied, fossil plants to support days when This means that in most cases the
and trucks were only allowed to the wind is either going to blow locations that have the best wind are
deliver trash from 10 AM to 4 PM, a too strongly or not at all, or as in not the places that have high densities
time when few people were home. the case of photovoltaic, when the of people or power consumption. For
storms are rolling across the service the grid operator, that means building
V-Cent territory hiding the sun. The global extensions to the transmission grid.
Like the S-Cent facilities, they are understanding of cloud paths and High voltage transmission lines are
connected to the high voltage network detailed wind forecasts is less than not cheap—they can cost millions
and produce large amounts of power. perfect, and as such, the impact of of euros a kilometer; for example,
Also, like the S-Cent facilities, they weather on V-Cent is likewise, i.e. less at AEP, one project is budgeted at
are highly visible on the horizon than perfect. 5.5 million dollars a mile. Add to
and cannot be hidden from view the cost the fact that wind farms
easily. Unlike the S-Cent facilities This less than perfect understanding only generate about 40 percent of
they run when the environment is means that the utility has to be ready the time, and the transmission link
right, and not when they are needed. to react to changes in power output to support a plan like the Pickens
For example, wind has to blow fast on a very short timeline; in some plan (a plan to replace all the fossil
enough, and yet not too fast in order cases the swing can be hundreds of generation in the US with wind
to generate power. In most cases they megawatts in a matter of minutes. power and use the natural gas that
offer power from 7 to 40 percent of If utilities want to see this power currently makes electricity and heats
the time, depending on the location swing in operation, visit Tennet the homes to power automobiles) in the
and the type of resource. These grid operator in the Netherlands and US would need to connect to three
systems require some level of other watch the power flow on a stormy day times the number of megawatts of
generation to provide support, since on the interconnector with Germany. wind power than it would for coal
the power they produce comes and Because conventional generation generation. In other words, to use
goes on a change in the weather, does not react as quickly as V-Cent wind to provide ancillary services
and the load they support may not. typically does, the grid operator on (e.g. maintaining voltage, frequency
The estimate in Colorado is that the transmission network has to and the integrity of the Alternating
it takes one megawatt of running deal with rapid changes in voltage Current (AC) wave form – all required
gas-fired generation to support 2 on the grid. In some cases, where to let device work right and not burn
megawatts of wind generation in the penetration of wind or solar is out)—by spreading the wind farms
the state. This ratio has a big impact small, the rapid swing is a small over a wide area that receives strong
on the carbon footprint of the final part of the overall power flow and wind—would cost at least three
delivered power. While it is cleaner can be safely ignored. In Texas and times the cost of transmission for
than a new coal-fired power plant, the Spain this is not the case, and both a new nuclear plant. No one likes
estimate is that to get the equivalent have almost lost the transmission large steel towers in their backyard,
of 2 megawatts of new coal-fired grid to blackouts because of wind so you can expect that even if
power plant, 1 megawatt of gas- power—in Texas it was the sudden people embrace wind mills, they
fired generation and 2 megawatts of and unexpected drop in wind power will pan the transmission corridors.
wind generation have to be installed. production and in Spain it was too With these new large transmission
Large variable central generation can much wind generation on a wonderful links, there are issues with power
be monitored by existing SCADA spring Sunday when people decided quality and voltage management on
systems and controlled by existing to go outside and shut off most of the transmission network that did
energy management systems that their electric devices and lights. Swift not exist before. Proper ancillary
are in operation by the transmission action by the grid operator saved the services can help fix this, but the
operator today. What the existing grid in both cases, but it was close. technology to use one wind farm
systems cannot do is to predict with to support another wind farm for
any level of confidence what the Geographically wind blows where it ancillary services, like voltage
output of wind power will be 24 to blows and we do not have the skills support or frequency management
48 hours in advance. New systems to modify the global weather patterns is not commercially available yet.
have to be installed to support this to put the wind where we want it to The global industry has worked very
4
Energy, Utilities and Chemicals the way we see it
are not just an issue of S-Dist, V-Dist the peak would be much higher than Most of the best places to put wind
has similar issues as do many of the the cost to generate power at a central mills and solar cells are out in the
new classes of consumer electronics. station—further reducing the number suburban and rural areas where the
of hours that the S-Dist might run. people density is less, and that means
Because the S-Dist is installed in the the power consumption is also less.
distribution network, the transmission Finally, these generation sources In many cases, this means the size of
SCADA system does not offer the ability typically have a site approval the wires in the distribution grid are
to operate or monitor these generation problem—since most are diesel also smaller. To put larger numbers
sources. Instead, the operator of the and gasoline engines running of V-Dist units in the rural areas and
low voltage network will have to install bio-fuels, they are noisy and smell move the power to people who will
a system to monitor and control these (imagine McDonalds French fries use it may involve re-conductoring—
sources and provide information to for bio-diesel). Many people do not replacing the physical wire in the
the Energy Management System that want to see them installed in their distribution grid so that it will carry
normally resides in the transmission neighborhood and even fewer people more power than it does today. For
operations center. Some utilities are want to hear them run at 3 o’clock in an overhead system, where the lines
choosing to allow a third party to do the morning. are up on poles, re-conductoring
this work for them, while others are can cost as little as $100,000 a mile.
attempting to install the infrastructure V-Dist For underground systems, that
to support S-Dist. The Distribution Finally there is V-Dist, the kind number can run into more than a
Network Operators (DNOs) in the UK of renewables that most people million dollars a mile. Companies
already have these systems installed, think of when you mention like HydroOne in Canada made the
but have yet to use them for this renewable generation—human-scale decision to re-conductor years ago
purpose. They are generally well ahead renewables that should blend into and made it a multi-decade program
of most of the rest of the industry in the neighborhood. These solar and to replace thousands of kilometers of
having the infrastructure to support wind powered devices are owned by wire when they did maintenance.
these sources. business owners and homeowners.
They are deployed in the low voltage Unlike the V-Cent, these systems are
Loss of power from a system failure network and suffer from all the same maintained by the homeowner and
should cause most S-Dist systems problems that S-Dist does. This many of them find they do not get the
to automatically disconnect from includes the issues with harmonics power output they were promised by
the grid, since they seldom are large and with phase imbalance. the salesman; so they do not make the
enough to support the entire load money they expected and hence do
in the remaining section of the grid They have even had issues with smell not maintain the generator. This leads
that they are now connected to. This and noise (for instance, solar cells to a collapse in the capability of the
means that while the customer that that cooked tree sap giving off strong system to make power and can make
owns the S-Dist has a higher level of odors and windmills that make noise the generator even more erratic then it
reliability, the rest of the customers all night long). In addition, these was when it was first installed. One of
do not. Most S-Dist is very useful devices pose another problem for the the first components to typically fail is
for shaving the peak—i.e. reducing grid operator—they run when the the islanding device and the inverter.
the demand for a section of the grid environment is right and do not run The failure of these devices does not
when the demand for power is at its when it is not. They use the grid like typically isolate the device, but rather
highest. This is very useful when the a large battery, putting excess power they fail most often providing DC
grid is reaching its limit for providing into the grid and drawing power power into the grid even when they
power. In the case where this is all the from the grid when they do not make should be islanded. The failure of the
S-Dist is being used for, it might run enough. In similar cases, going from power electronics creates a hazard
as much as 200 hours a year. This is a net generator to a net consumer can for the lineman who is dispatched
a huge capital investment for roughly take seconds. This works well when to fix the network outage, since they
2% of the year. Most customers who the percentage of power produced have no clue that the power is still
would install S-Dist would do so for from V-Dist is small, but as the flowing through the line and many
reliability rather than to support peak percentage increases there will need transformers will step up the voltage
shaving. In many cases, the price that to be real batteries installed on the for this distributed power. The ability
would have to be offered to the S-Dist grid, and that is a whole different to monitor the health of the power
owner to run their generation to shave story with its own issues. electronics—both the inverter and
Ancillary Services
Typical Size (MW)
Fuel Competition
Fuel Availability
Fuel Efficiency
Cooling Water
Dispatchable
Time to build
Schedulable
Capital Cost
Particulates
Lead Times
O&M Costs
Ramp Rate
Reliabity
Site Size
Mercury
Waste
Sulfur
CO2
Generation Source
Baseload
Clean Gas NA
GeoThermal 1110 2
Concentrating Salt/Solar NA
Peaking
Diesel 5 1021 2
Variable
Sources
1) Electricity generation costs and investment decisions: A REVIEW; Dennis Anderson; Imperial College Centre for Energy Policy and Technology; Feb. 2007
2) EIA Report #: DOE/EIA-0554 (2008)
3) Shaping & Firming Wind Energy with Electric Energy Storage by Dr. Robert B. Schainker; EPRI; Nov. 2006
4) A Future For Nuclear Energy – Pebble Bed Reactors by Andrew C. Kadak, Ph.D.; MIT; April 2004
5) Note the first 165 MW pebble bed reactor in South Africa has a 8400 USD per KW price including R&D and all the costs associated with a first time project
6) PES Wiki - http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Thin_Film_Solar
7) http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50342/story.htm
6
Energy, Utilities and Chemicals the way we see it
islanding device—is critical to the the regulator to get a way to incent as well as developing the operating
safety of people working on the people to put them in the right places, rules is another significant chunk
system, and a simple fine for failure or for the utility to install and support of work. Knowing what is really
to maintain the system is not enough installation in the right places. happening in the distribution network
to remove the human hazard that is more than just the renewable issue;
exists. This human hazard can exist Dealing with variability is tough. most of the distribution network
with S-Dist as well, but empirical data The choices are ancillary services, has very little in the way of sensors
from working with both S-Dist and demand response, or storage. To available to provide information on
V-Dist indicates that the S-Dist sees date there are no good answers for what is happening. Putting this issue
fewer failures and more maintenance storage, although the battery industry on to renewables is unfair, but it is a
than V-Dist installations. keeps promising that in 5 years they gating item for successfully installing
will have an answer—this started S-Dist and V-Dist. Smart Metering is a
Summary in the 1970s and continues to be a step in the right direction for sharing
Renewable generation is an important 5 year promise. Demand response this cost.
part of the future for the electric means installing devices that either
industry—we can not avoid it and provide information or control in the The good news is that nothing new
we cannot hide from it. We have homes. This is part of many smart needs to be invented—only improved
to work through these problems metering deployments. Finally, there and deployed (with the exception of
and make integration of renewables is ancillary service—burning fossil storage). Renewables are a key part of
easy. IEEE-1547 provided the basic fuels to support the integration of fixing the carbon issue and providing
interface for renewables to the grid, variable renewables in the grid or electricity where the cost of power
so the interconnection, the largest holding hydro facilities in reserve to is not tied to the cost of fossil fuels.
stumbling block a decade ago, has provide instant voltage support. This Fuel price swings and the move to
been solved. Now the issues move is a question that will take research, carbon markets will tend to accelerate
to the integration of the renewables planning and operational work to the move to renewable. The new US
into the operation of the grid. Some provide an answer for, and it will not Energy Team under President Obama
of the issues can be solved with solve the “too much power” issue on a will also accelerate this move in the
planning—relaying and protection day when customer demand drops to US and that will have an impact on
schemes can be redesigned and the almost nothing. the rest of the world. Regulators,
new standard can be deployed as customers, utilities, manufacturers
circuits are maintained or built. This Harmonics, reactive power, and and independent power producers
is an important step in being ready power quality are harder problems. will all have to work together to make
for distributed generation, and not The transmission operators this work. For more than 100 years,
just renewable generation. Working manage reactive power and many we have been improving, perfecting
with regulators to determine how to of the sensors on the transmission and investing in the existing electric
test the status of power electronics networks exist to handle reactive grid. One estimate for transmission
and what the utility is allowed to power. Capacitor banks are helpful alone indicates that the US would
require for the safety of workers is in managing reactive power, but have to spend over $900 billion to
also an important step. For example: typically they do not exist out in the support a plan like the Pickens Plan.
Can the utility cut the wire to the distribution network and the sensors Globally, it would amount to trillions
power electronics and remove it, if the and controls to use them effectively of dollars.
islanding device is not functioning also do not exist. Harmonics and
correctly? What are the rules for safely power quality for the smaller We have a long way to go, we need to
operating these devices and ensuring customer to date have been ignored make the journey, but knowing the
maintenance? This will have to be as too expensive for the benefits issues we will encounter along the
solved for each utility, as there is no delivered. The question is when the way and planning for them in advance
universal answer. Site approval is tipping point is reached and these will make the journey more likely
an issue that will not go away, and problems have to be sorted out. to succeed. This is a journey that we
in most cases it is the responsibility need to take, let us all do it with the
of someone other than the utility. Integration of hundreds or thousands highest possible chance to succeed.
Putting the devices on the right of generation sources into existing
phase, if they are single phase, again Energy Management Systems and
is an issue that takes working with Distribution Management Systems,
EUC20081215_473
© 2009 Capgemini. All Rights Reserved. No part of this document may be modified, deleted or
expanded by any process or means without prior written permission from Capgemini.