Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies

Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies

 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies

Map of UK Power
Supply System
Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies
Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies
Daily load duration curve
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies

• Frequency control and Reserve (Spare

Capacity)
• At any given time the amount of plant in
operation and connected to the system should
be exactly equal to the system demand.
However spare capacity must be available to
allow for:
• loss of the largest system generator due to a
fault
• to allow for load changes
• to allow for inaccuracies in load forecasting
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies
Estimates of renewable-energy resource and cost in
2025 for the UK
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies

Renewable electricity generation: resource-cost curve for the UK in 2025, based on an

8% discount rate (source: ETSU, 1999)
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies
Are renewable-energy supplies available where we want them?

It would be helpful if renewable energy supplies were located at the

points of maximum energy demand, the major cities.

Some can be. Solar thermal or photovoltaic panels can be fitted to

the roofs of buildings

Energy crops are likely to be available in rural areas but not where
food production is considered more important. Fuels such as
forestry wastes and SRC need to be gathered and transported from
where they are grown (possibly remote country areas) to where they
will be used (probably in towns). Remember, wood only has half the
energy density of coal so transportation can be a problem.
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies

The roof of this petrol station in London has a large PV array, providing enough electricity to
power the lights and petrol pumps. BP has installed several hundred such arrays on petrol
stations around the world
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies

Wave, wind and tidal power

• the locations of the best wind, wave and tidal energy
sources in the British Isles can be seen on the next slide
• these electricity-generating sources are not uniformly
distributed.
• Both the UK and the Irish Republic have enormous
potential for renewable-energy supplies.
• Comparison of this map with that for the UK electricity
distribution system raises the question of how the
existing National Grids will need to evolve in order to
match the new energy sources to the loads.
Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies

Wave Power
The best wave power resources are in Scotland, the
Atlantic coast of Ireland and the south-west of England.

The best onshore wind resources are in Scotland,

Wales, Cornwall, the north and west of England and the
west of Ireland.

All of these are areas currently under rapid development.

 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies

The prime areas for offshore wind development are the shallow waters of the
North and Irish Seas, possible areas are necessarily restricted by shipping
lanes. Yet it would only require an area of sea 30 km by 40 km to supply
10% of the UK’s electricity needs.

The DTI have identified three ‘strategic areas’ for development: in Morecambe
Bay on the west coast, and around the Wash and the Thames Estuary on
the east coast.

These are all conveniently close to existing major grid links.

In Ireland, a major offshore wind farm has been approved for construction
at Arklow Bank, south of Dublin. This project alone could provide more
than 10% of the Republic’s electricity.
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies

The potential for tidal barrages is concentrated on

a few large estuaries, particularly the Severn,
though ‘lagoon’ type structures could be built in
more open sea areas.
The potential for tidal current devices is in similar
estuary locations, but there are many
possibilities around prominent headlands,
notably the ‘Race of Alderney’ between Alderney
and Cap la Hague on the French coast.
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies
Are renewable-energy supplies available when we want them?

Our demand for energy is not constant. It varies widely over the
day, the week and the year.

We need more energy for heating buildings in winter than in

summer.

As a result, the UK consumes three times as much natural gas in

a typical December as it does in a summer month.

Connecting the renewables

Where do the renewables fit into all this? The answer depends on
the particular source and the extent to which the timing and
quantity of its output matches demand.
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies

Hydroelectricity
Large scale hydro power is perhaps the most
desirable of all renewable electricity sources
from the point of view of flexibility of supply.
Water can be stored in reservoirs for months or
even years, yet the generators can be wound up
to full power and turned off again in minutes.
In the UK, most plants are in the range 100 kW to
100 MW and are connected at voltages of 11 kV
or above.
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies

Biofuel plant

Generation plants using MSW, waste wood or landfill gas

are relatively small, typically in the output range 100 kW
to 50 MW.

As such, they are likely to be connected to the system at 11

kV or 33 kV and run fairly continuously.

Apart from breakdowns, their output is highly predictable

and, as such, their electricity is every bit as valuable as
that from larger power stations.
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies

Solar power
In the UK, photovoltaic systems are most likely to
be at the kilowatt scale and connected locally at
the 230 V or 400 V level.
Naturally, they only produce electricity during the
day and their output will be higher in summer
than in winter.
Given their relative expense, they are only likely to
make up a small proportion of any renewable
electricity mix for the UK in the near future.
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies
Wind and wave power

With the current large-scale development of onshore and

offshore wind farms, there is much interest in exactly
how much wind-generated electricity can be absorbed by
the existing infrastructure.
Although wave power is much less developed, it shares the
same basic problems.
Modern individual wind and wave generators are likely to
have power ratings of between 50 kW and 5 MW.
Current wind farms and future large wave power devices
could have total outputs in excess of 100 MW.
Thus they are likely to be connected to the grid within the
local distribution network at voltages of 11 kV, 33 kV or
even higher.
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies
Wind and wave power

The output of wind and wave power generators is not perfectly

predictable (although detailed weather forecasting can help) but it
pays to use the output when it is there, since there are no fuel costs.

Typically, a 1 MW wind turbine will produce 300–400 kW on average.

It will produce full output on a windy day but nothing on a calm one.

At modest wind speeds, its output may vary considerably from minute
to minute.

Modern large turbine designs incorporate sophisticated power

electronics that can reduce this variability.
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies
Wind and wave power

The output of a wave power device is dependent on the variable

intensity of the waves.

On a stormy day it will run at full power, on a flat calm one it will
produce nothing, and on an intermediate day, its output will be
variable.

If such sources are widely spaced, then just as diversity of demand

adds up to a smoothly varying total demand on the National Grid, so
diversity of supply can also smooth out the local variations of
output of various renewable-energy sources.

When the wind stops blowing in Scotland, it may still be blowing in

Wales.
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies
Wind and wave power

There is still a fundamental question of what should be done on ‘the

day with no wind power’.

It has been argued that when a high pressure weather system covered
the whole of the British Isles, there would be no output from wind
turbines, and consequently there would need to be 100% backup
from other sources.

This might require other power plant to be kept in reserve.

All this would create extra ‘system costs’ over and above those of the
normal generation of electricity.

The electrical transmission system operators recommend that an upper

limit of 20% of electricity from non-firm sources can be accepted.
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies

Tidal Power

Tidal power is intermittent, but

highly predictable. A scheme
such as the proposed Severn
Barrage, generating only on
the ebb tide, could produce a
pulse of power of up to 8 GW
about six hours long every
12.4 hours
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies
Tidal Power

The output of a single turbine might consist of a

rather unpromising sequence of pulses of
power three to four hours long. However, the
output of two identical devices in different
locations where the times of high tides
differed by about 3 hours (such as Portland
Bill in Dorset and Dover in Kent) could add
up to an almost constant supply .in practice,
it is likely that such turbines would be
deployed at a large number of different
locations.

In total, they might produce a supply that varied

little over the day, but would have long
monthly cyclic variations with the spring-tide
to neap-tide changes in tide amplitude.

The price that might have to be paid for any

large-scale deployment would be a
strengthening of the National Grid to make
use of the differing times of the tides at
different locations.
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies
Tidal Current Turbines

The position with tidal current turbines seems

more promising but, at present, it is only
possible to estimate their performance.
Theoretically, such a turbine is likely to produce
power in proportion to the cube of the speed of
the water flowing through it (this is analogous to
the performance of wind turbines).
The output will peak every 6.2 hours, on the
incoming tide and again on the ebb tide.
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies
Some system solutions
Grid strengthening

The existing grid has grown up around the power stations of the past.
Connecting large amounts of power from new renewable sources will
undoubtedly require strengthening the National Grid.

This will not come cheaply. Typically, an overhead 400 kV line costs about
£150 per MW per kilometre.

On this basis one capable of carrying 2 GW would cost about £300 000 per
kilometre.

Moreover, a new line from, for instance, Scotland to England would almost
certainly face environmental objections.

Placing sections of the cable underground would be extremely expensive, with

prices of up to £5 million per km.
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies
Some system solutions
Demand management
It would be convenient for fossil-fuelled, nuclear and most
renewable electricity supplies if electricity demand
varied as little as possible over the day and night. This
can be encouraged through the use of ‘off-peak’
electricity tariffs.
There are many electrical loads that are not immediately
needed. One example is large-scale water pumping
which could be placed under remote control. At times
of any impending shortage of renewable electricity
supply, pumps could be turned off.
Large scale energy storage would also be another
possibility
 Integration of Renewable Energy Supplies

Some system solutions

Micro-power

It is often argued that large numbers (possibly millions) of

small embedded generators (i.e. at the low voltage end
of the grid) could cut the need for large scale electricity
grids and provide backup for wind generators.
Small-scale generators are designed to operate completely
automatically. They will connect and disconnect from the
grid in response to their local energy needs or
circumstances.