Unbalanced GSU Transformer Configuration at Rockport Plant - Analysis and Operating Experience

This paper describes extensive engineering studies carried out at the American Electric Power (AEP) Service Corporation to determine the feasibility of operating a 1300 MW generating unit with an unbalanced generator step-up (GSU) transformer bank. These studies served as a basis for plans developed to restart AEP's Rockport Plant -- following the failure of the phase three GSU transformer on December 17, 1985 -- with the two remaining single-phase GSU transformers and a dissimilar spare transformer. The GSU transformer failure at Rockport created a unique and complex problem because the only spare transformer available for installation was of a design with which AEP had previously experienced problems. The limitations of the spare transformer resulted in a highly unconventional operating mode for the Rockport generating unit.     

火电机组一次调频及AGC全网试验分析

结合西北电网机组一次调频及AGC全网试验情况,对火电机组一次调频及AGC试验中存在的技术问题进行了较为系统、全面的阐述和分析,对一次调频及AGC涉网技术管理工作提出相应的建议。通过试验发现不同电厂机组一次调频性能差异很大,部分机组一次调频性能不能满足电网运行要求,需进行优化和完善。试验结果表明并网机组投入一次调频和AGC功能可显著提高电网频率稳定陛,改善电网频率动态品质。     

Electrolysers for mitigating wind curtailment and producing ‘green’ merchant hydrogen

The implementation electrolysis plant in combination with wind power plant is proposed, to absorb wind generation otherwise curtailed while generating ‘green’ hydrogen for the merchant hydrogen market. The objective are to (i) achieve exceptionally high wind power penetrations in future power systems, and (ii) derive hydrogen for sale in the existing merchant industrial market from surplus (zero cost) renewable electricity. The economic rationale is investigated for an isolated power system as a function wind penetration, wind curtailment target, electrolyser cost, hydrogen system efficiency and hydrogen sales price. The main outputs are the total annualized cost of wind power plant with electrolysis plant, net annual revenues and discounted pay-back periods. Unprecedented low values of pay-back period are attainable, relative to the implementation of wind power plant at low wind penetrations (Φ_W). For example, at Φ_W = 50%, a wind curtailment target of 80% allows the investment to be recovered after 4-7 years, provided the hydrogen system efficiency is ≥50% and the hydrogen sales price is 20-30 $/kg. Making use of some non-curtailed wind electricity to boost the utilization of the electrolyser stock is also investigated as a means for improving the return on investment.     

Optimal strategies for wind turbine environmental curtailment

Wind turbine curtailment is oftentimes required as a means to mitigate environmental impacts of a wind energy installation. For example, curtailment may be required to satisfy constraints on the occurrence of shadow flicker on nearby homes or to reduce wildlife fatalities below a certain limit. This paper introduces an optimal curtailment strategy, which seeks to maximize wind plant revenue while meeting imposed environmental constraints by intelligently selecting curtailment times. To formulate the problem, a discrete set of curtailment decision times is defined, and long‐term forecast data are used to predict demand‐weighted power production at each time. Dynamic programming is used in conjunction with in situ meteorological sensors to compute the probabilistically optimal curtailment decision in real time. By leveraging both forecast data and real‐time measurements, the algorithm ensures that the constraint budget is expended strategically, curtailing when revenue is low and saving operating hours for times when revenue is likely to be higher. Through a series of simulation studies involving shadow flicker constraints, algorithm performance is characterized and compared with two simpler approaches: a greedy scheme and a threshold‐based scheme. These studies highlight the benefit of the optimal algorithm as well as the performance tradeoffs inherent in the three different solution approaches. Overall, the dynamic programming algorithm is shown to exhibit significant benefits in cases where sufficient meteorological and demand data are available.     

How much wind energy will be curtailed on the 2020 Irish power system?

This paper describes a model of the 2020 Irish electricity system which was developed and solved in a mixed integer programming, unit commitment and economic dispatch tool called PLEXOS^®. The model includes all generators on the island of Ireland, a simplified representation of the neighbouring British system including proposed wind capacity and interconnectors between the two systems. The level of wind curtailment is determined under varying levels of three influencing factors. The first factor is the amount of offshore wind, the second is the allowed limit of system non-synchronous penetration (SNSP) and the third is inclusion or exclusion of transmission constraints. A binding constraint, resulting from the 2020 EU renewable energy targets, is that 37% of generation comes from wind. When the SNSP limit was increased from 60% to 75% there was a reduction in wind curtailment from 14% to 7%, with a further reduction when the proportion of wind capacity installed offshore was increased. Wind curtailment in the range of SNSP limit of 70–100% is influenced primarily by the inclusion of transmission constraints. Large changes in the dispatch of conventional generators were also evident due to the imposition of SNSP limits and transmission constraints.     

基于改进模型预测控制的“大机小网”下火电-光伏-抽水蓄能优化调度

光伏大规模接入加剧了"大机小网"电网的结构性问题,导致传统单断面优化调度难以实现最优运行。提出了一种基于改进模型预测控制(MPC)的多时间尺度火电-光伏-抽水蓄能联合优化调度模型。即对于日前优化调度,在系统运行成本中引入了光伏未消纳量和火电污染物排放量形成多目标函数;对于日内滚动优化,以跟踪日前计划值为目标,考虑了光伏出力极限场景调节能力约束与抽水蓄能机组启停速率约束,并采用自适应调节预测时域与控制时域的MPC方法改进了传统MPC。海南省某区域电网的实际运行验证了该综合模型的有效性。     

超临界机组控制技术及发展

发展超临界机组是提高我国能源利用率现实可行的选择,而超临界机组的动态特性复杂,其运行稳定性和经济性强烈地依赖于高性能的控制系统,文中在分析了超临界机组控制系统的现状以及难点的基础上,重点探讨了非线性控制,容错控制,信息融合等先进控制技术在超临界机组控制中的应用前景,对发展我国超临界机组控制技术中所要求解决的一些技术问题进行了分析。     

Weather index insurance for wind energy

As China vigorously promotes the development of new energy, photovoltaic power curtailment and wind power curtailment have been effectively resolved. At the same time, the yield from new energy power generation is becoming an important factor that affects the scale of investment in new energy. This paper focuses on the weather risks faced by wind power producers. By studying current research on weather index insurance in China and abroad, the functions and design methods for weather index insurance have been clarified. In addition, the feasibility of wind-power generation index insurance is discussed. The calculation methods for wind power generation index and the weather index insurance pricing methods for wind power enterprises are proposed. A weather index insurance model for wind power generation was established. The rationality and feasibility of the weather index insurance model proposed in this paper were verified using data from an existing power plant. The simulation results show that wind power enterprises can effectively avoid economic losses caused by weather risks through weather index insurance.     

Pumped storage in systems with very high wind penetration

This paper examines the operation of the Irish power system with very high levels of wind energy, with and without pumped storage. A unit commitment model which accounts for the uncertainty in wind power is used. It is shown that as wind penetration increases, the optimal operation of storage depends on wind output as well as load. The main benefit from storage is shown to be a decrease in wind curtailment. The economics of the system are examined to find the level at which storage justifies its capital costs and inefficiencies. It is shown that the uncertainty of wind makes the option of storage more attractive. The size of the energy store has an impact on results. At lower levels of installed wind (up to approximately 50% of energy from wind in Ireland), the reduction in curtailment is insufficient to justify building storage. At greater levels of wind, storage reduces curtailment sufficiently to justify the additional capital costs. It can be seen that if storage replaces OCGTs in the plant mix instead of CCGTs, then the level at which it justifies itself is lower. Storage increases the level of carbon emissions at wind penetration below 60%.     

Profit-based conventional resource scheduling with renewable energy penetration

Technological breakthroughs in renewable energy technologies (RETs) enabled them to attain grid parity thereby making them potential contenders for existing conventional resources. To examine the market participation of RETs, this paper formulates a scheduling problem accommodating energy market participation of wind- and solar-independent power producers (IPPs) treating both conventional and RETs as identical entities. Furthermore, constraints pertaining to penetration and curtailments of RETs are restructured. Additionally, an appropriate objective function for profit incurred by conventional resource IPPs through reserve market participation as a function of renewable energy curtailment is also proposed. The proposed concept is simulated with a test system comprising 10 conventional generation units in conjunction with solar photovoltaic (SPV) and wind energy generators (WEG). The simulation results indicate that renewable energy integration and its curtailment limits influence the market participation or scheduling strategies of conventional resources in both energy and reserve markets. Furthermore, load and reliability parameters are also affected.     

System-level power-to-gas energy storage for high penetrations of variable renewables

According to outlooks by the IEA and the U.S. EIA, renewables will become the largest source of electricity by 2050 if global temperature rise is to be limited to 2 °C. However, at penetrations greater than 30%, curtailment of wind and solar can be significant in even the most flexible systems. Energy storage can reduce curtailment and increase utilisation of variable renewables. Power-to-gas is a form of long-term storage based on electrolytic production of hydrogen. This research models the co-sizing of wind and solar PV capacity and electrolyser capacity in a jurisdiction targeting 80% penetration of variable renewable electricity. Results indicate that power-to-gas can reduce required wind and solar capacity by as much as 23% and curtailment by as much as 87%. While the majority of charging events last less than 12 h, the majority of the total annual stored energy comes from longer-term events. Additional scenarios reveal that geographic diversity of wind farms reduces capacity requirements, but the same benefit is not found for distributing solar PV.     

目前中国风电弃风现状及对策

深入分析了风电弃风的原因,介绍了中国风电弃风的现状和对中国风电弃风的基本认识,并在此基础上提出了中国可采取的风电弃风的对策机制。     

二滩水电厂机组尾水压力脉动及其影响

为全面了解二滩水电厂机组稳定特性和确保机组长期稳定运行,对机组进行了大量现场试验,分析了机组尾水锥管压力脉动随负荷、水头变化的性能以及对机组振动摆度的影响。在此基础上将机组运行工况划分为小负荷区、涡带和稳定运行区,并建议机组避开涡带、低负荷区运行。     

Wind power and photovoltaic power: How to improve the accommodation capability of renewable electricity generation in China?

China's wind curtailment and photovoltaic curtailment was one of the prominent issues in 2014, and the renewable curtailment worsened in 2015. With the rapid growth of renewables, the phenomenon of the insufficiency in renewable accommodation capability is becoming more and more serious in 2016. In that case, the problem of the insufficient accommodation capability is pointed out by analyzing China's development requirements. The renewable power generation scale, the renewable power consumption, and the restrictions on the renewable electricity generation are discussed from the China's market perspective. Meanwhile, the legal environment, the planning requirement, the institutional setting, and the policy tools are introduced from the perspective of governmental regulation. An empirical analysis, a cause analysis and a trend analysis are illustrated before explaining the problem of renewable curtailment and proposing a solution for enhancing the accommodation capability. According to the analysis results, the solution for addressing the wind curtailment and PV curtailment is offered with respect to the technology, the institution, the legislation, and the political aspect. Through the research, the research conclusions are drew finally and the corresponding policy recommendations are put forward.     

The world's largest all-vanadium redox flow battery energy storage system for a wind farm

风力发电具有明显的随机性,间歇性,不可控性和反调峰特性,风力发电的大规模并网给电网调峰和稳定,安全运行带来了巨大压力,造成弃风限电现象愈加严重,严重影响了风力资源的有效利用和经济效益.全钒液流电池储能电站在能量管理系统的调度下,对风力发电输出功率进行平滑,配合风电场功率预报系统,提高风电场跟踪计划发电能力,改善了风电场并网电能质量,降低了对电网的冲击与影响,同时也提高了风电场输出功率可控性,有利于提高电网对风电的接纳能力.国电龙源卧牛石风电场配套的5 MW/10 MW∙h全钒液流电池储能系统为目前世界上最大规模的全钒液流电池储能系统.本文介绍了该全钒液流电池技术特点和储能系统的设计,成组方案及功能,并对储能技术在可再生能源发展中的作用进行了展望.     

The economic and environmental impact of power to hydrogen/power to methane facilities on hybrid power-natural gas energy systems

The curtailment of renewable energy would be reduced by converting it to hydrogen or methane using power to hydrogen (P2H) facilities or power to methane (P2M) facilities. Both hydrogen and methane can be injected into the existing natural gas system which has significant potential to unlock the inherent flexibility of integrated energy systems. The coordinated operation strategy of the hybrid power-natural gas energy systems considering P2H and P2M is proposed aiming to minimize the operational cost. In addition, a method to calculate the higher heating value of hydrogen-natural gas mixture is presented along with a strategy for handling the constraints of hydrogen mixture level limits. The simulation results of three case studies demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits of P2H/P2M in terms of reductions in cost, CO₂ emissions and wind power curtailment. The differences in benefits between P2H and P2M have also been compared and analyzed.     

The impacts on climate mitigation costs of considering curtailment and storage of variable renewable energy in a general equilibrium model

The curtailment and storage associated with the fluctuation of electricity supplied by variable renewable energy (VRE) may limit its penetration into electricity systems. Therefore, these factors need to be explicitly treated in the integrated assessment models (IAMs). This study improves the representation of curtailment and storage of VRE in a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. With the data generated from an hourly power sector model, curtailment and storage of VRE electricity are treated as a function of the shares of solar and wind in the electricity mix. This relationship is incorporated into a CGE model and we also updated the VRE costs and resource potential. The results show that with such improvement, by 2100, in a 450 ppm atmospheric CO₂ equivalent concentration (henceforth ppm) scenario, some electricity generated from VRE is either curtailed (2.1%) or needs to be stored (2.9%). In contrast, if VRE fluctuation is not considered, the long-term global economic cost of carbon mitigation is significantly underestimated (by 52%) in the same scenario. Conversely, updating the VRE costs and resource potential leads to a decrease in mitigation costs. Our simulation implies that the fluctuation of VRE cannot be ignored and needs to be incorporated into CGE models. Moreover, in addition to storage with batteries, many other options are available to reduce curtailment of VRE. The top-down type CGE model has limitations to fully incorporate all aspects due to its limited spatial, temporal, and technological resolution.     

Evaluation of hydrogen storage technology in risk-constrained stochastic scheduling of multi-carrier energy systems considering power,gas and heating network constraints

The operation of energy systems considering a multi-carrier scheme takes several advantages of economical, environmental, and technical aspects by utilizing alternative options is supplying different kinds of loads such as heat, gas, and power. This study aims to evaluate the influence of power to hydrogen conversion capability and hydrogen storage technology in energy systems with gas, power, and heat carriers concerning risk analysis. Accordingly, conditional value at risk (CVaR)-based stochastic method is adopted for investigating the uncertainty associated with wind power production. Hydrogen storage system, which can convert power to hydrogen in off-peak hours and to feed generators to produce power at on-peak time intervals, is studied as an effective solution to mitigate the wind power curtailment because of high penetration of wind turbines in electricity networks. Besides, the effect constraints associated with gas and district heating network on the operation of the multi-carrier energy systems has been investigated. A gas-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plant and hydrogen storage are considered as the interconnections among power, gas and heat systems. The proposed framework is implemented on a system to verify the effectiveness of the model. The obtained results show the effectiveness of the model in terms of handling the risks associated with multi-carrier system parameters as well as dealing with the penetration of renewable resources.     

Performance characteristics of a Diesel engine power plant

Performance of an actual Diesel engine power plant with a rated output of 120 MW is analyzed based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The plant consists of seven identical Diesel engines and various subsystems including turbochargers, fuel heating units and heat exchangers performing various useful tasks. The engine runs on heavy fuel oil, and the pollutant emissions from the engine are greatly reduced by effective treatment systems. The characteristics and performance parameters of the internal combustion engines of the plant are evaluated. The mass, energy and exergy balances are verified for each flow stream in the power plant. The work and heat interactions, the exergy losses and the efficiencies of various components based on both energy and exergy concepts are evaluated. The thermal and the exergy efficiencies of the plant are determined to be 47% and 44%, respectively. The engine irreversibilities are due mostly to the irreversible combustion process and account for 32% of the total exergy input and 57% of the total irreversibilities in the plant. Most of the remaining irreversibilities in the plant occur in the desulphurization, intercooler, compressor and lubrication oil cooler units. The results should provide a realistic and meaningful ground for the performance evaluation of Diesel engine power units, and it may be used in the design and analysis of such systems.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Disodium Hydrogen Phosphate Dodecahydrate-Lauric-Palmitic Acid Used for Indoor Energy Storage Floor Units

Organic and inorganic phase change materials(PCMs) are considered potential materials for thermal energy storage(TES) with different phase change characteristics. In this study, a novel organic-inorganic composite phase change material(PCM) called disodium hydrogen phosphate dodecahydrate-lauric-palmitic acid(D-LA-PACM) was prepared. Expanded graphite(EG) was selected as the support material, and the novel organic-inorganic form-stable PCM called D-LA-PAPCM/EG was prepared using the vacuum adsorption method. Differential scanning calorimetry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, leakage testing, melting and solidification cycle testing, thermal conductivity testing, scanning electron microscopy observation of the micromorphology, and other characterization methods were used to study the microstructure and morphology, thermal physical parameters, thermal conductivity, stability of the PCMs, and the comprehensive material properties of D-LA-PAPCM under the composite action of EG. Results indicated that the melting and freezing temperatures and latent heats of D-LA-PAPCM/EG were measured to be 31.6℃ and 34.3℃ and 142.9 and 142.8 J/g, respectively. Although some of the lauric-palmitic acid(LA-PA) and disodium hydrogen phosphate dodecahydrate(DHPD) separated in the multiple porous structures of EG after 1000 cycles, they could still absorb and release latent heats independently, with D-LA-PAPCM/EG still exhibiting good thermal stability. The thermal conductivity of D-LA-PAPCM/EG was 1.361 W/(m·K). Therefore, the material and thermal properties of the prepared D-LA-PAPCM/EG indicate that it could be well used as a feasible material for energy-saving phase change floor units in indoor TES systems.