Peer-to-peer (P2P) electricity trading is being promoted, to varying degrees, in both the EU and China. It allows individual citizens and businesses to produce and trade their own solar power (local, rooftop), while enabling the close-to-real-time balancing of supply and demand to maintain system stability. Helena Uhde at the ECECP gives an insight into the current status, implementation, regulations and policies in both regions. She cites two … [Read more...]
Synchronous condensers will stabilize the power grid as the Faroe Islands pivot to 100% green energy
The isolated Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic has an ambitious goal to become the world’s greenest group of islands. That means by 2030, SEV, the islands’ power utility, will be using 100% green electricity from hydropower, solar and wind and potentially tidal streams. As well as being an important climate change initiative, this will bring economic benefits as the Faroes will no longer rely on expensive fossil-fuel imports. However, … [Read more...]
New research shows Wind turbines, configured right, could provide grid stability
Research at NREL, in collaboration with GE, has led to a demonstration of common wind turbines in “grid-forming mode”. They managed to set the grid voltage and frequency, operating without power from the wider electric grid. It opens the door to reducing reliance on conventional sources of stability like coal or gas generators. The well-known weakness of wind is its variability and therefore its need to be supported by traditional baseload … [Read more...]
Industry’s large on-site batteries can profitably help stabilise the grid
Energy-intensive industries that invest in their own large on-site batteries will provide multiple benefits to themselves as well as to grid stability, says a new study by the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy (JISEA) in partnership with NREL and others. It matters because future power systems will need to be highly flexible due to the variability of wind and solar. The study assessed two established energy-intensive industries (chlor-alkali … [Read more...]
Distributed Energy Resources and Smart Grids: an opportunity or a distraction?
Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) are poorly understood by the utilities, explain Doyob Kim and Alyssa Fischer at the IEA. Part of the problem is that new innovations and solutions are coming fast, and policy-makers aren’t creating the incentives and frameworks to make them an imperative. But, done right, the successful integration of DERs into the grid will accelerate electrification, address grid stability, and reduce spending on expensive … [Read more...]
Modelling Hydrogen’s role in high penetration Wind + Solar grids
A hydrogen ramp-up is going to be expensive and asset-heavy. So, a whole-system analysis is needed to ensure its deployment is done cost-effectively today and meets long term goals. This is what all nations committing to hydrogen are struggling with. Kelley Travers at MIT describes their modelling, in collaboration with Shell, that looks at the optimisation of hydrogen deployment in grids where variable renewables (VREs) like wind and solar are … [Read more...]
Compact voltage converters for integrating new DERs into the grid
The switches and converters needed to plug new clean energy technologies into the grid are going to be needed soon. The cheaper and smaller they are, the easier it will be to cope with the wide range of solutions coming down the pipe. NREL and its partners are building a megawatt-scale prototype converter that could fit the bill. They will be 1/5th the size and 1/10th the weight of existing alternatives: small enough to place almost anywhere. … [Read more...]
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