Reliable power supply from intermittent sources
By 2025, half the Danish electricity consumption will come from wind power. What challenges does that target put on the power grid?
The object of the EcoGrid.dk research programme is to develop new long term technologies and market solutions for power systems with an increased share of distributed generation and renewable energy sources while maintaining the reliability of supply.
EcoGrid.dk - architectures, structures, control, operation
EcoGrid.dk will focus on the identification and evaluation of new architectures and structures for the power system and development of new solutions for enhanced customer participation and pioneering concepts of system control and operation. The EcoGrid programme will cover research and development activities within related areas, and the programme will initiate and coordinate these activities. EcoGrid.dk will look for global solutions with reference to the Danish power system and the new Danish energy policy the objective of which is at least 30 percent renewable energy in the overall energy system in 2025, and indications that wind power can cover 50 percent of electricity demand in 2025.
Phase 1: Identify solutions
The objective of phase 1 is to identify and describe different solutions with respect to a new power system architecture – including both logical and physical architectures, to examine consequences of future market developments and to identify new measures to support the overall goals and functions of the future power system.
Phase 2: Research and development
The objective of phase 2 is to carry out research and development activities to develop new technologies and market solutions needed in the future power system with increased share of distributed generation and renewable energy sources.
Phase 3: Demonstration
Phase 3 covers practical demonstration of technologies and solutions developed in phase 2.
Smart Grid
A Danish Smart Grid will be developed taking into consideration a lot of principles. For example; will the grid connections be strong enough to allow for increased flow of electric power and energy from production to consumption, also across national borders? System services must be made deliverable from all grid connected generation capacity to secure system robustness.
Challenging fluctuation power production
A comprehensive communications architecture must be established to allow for regulation and monitoring of all generation and consumption. Renewable energy must be used in a smart way. This goes especially for solar, wind, wave and other fluctuating sources that must be regulated directly, as well as indirectly, via forecasts and planning. Regulation and increase of power consumption must be done in an intelligent way, a realistic expectation of customer driven demand response must be developed and the regional optimum for substitution of fossil generation capacity must be found. Evolution of market products to support the smart grid development is needed.
Further reading:
Energinet.dk
is an independent, public company who owns the parent electricity and natural gas grids in Denmark as well as a natural gas storage. Energinet.dk is in charge of energy security, the electricity market and the integration of renewable energy. They are also in charge of research and development of technologies for environmentally friendly power production.
Energinet.dk has gathered available Danish expertise in the EcoGrid.dk project. The purpose of the project is to provide ways of meeting the demanding challenges which the Danish energy system will be facing over the next many years. The project is meant to introduce new thinking and targeted research into the overall power system of the future. The project should also analyse the relations with the district heating and natural gas systems.
The project is carried out in cooperation with Danfoss, DONG Energy, Ea-Energianalyse, EC-Power, Econ Pöyry, Energynautics GmbH, IMM-DTU, KK Electronic, Power Lynx, Risø-DTU, Vattenfall, Vestas and Aalborg Universitet.
The project is funded by the PSO programme from Energinet.dk. Total budget: DKK 5.5 million.
