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Technical Essay Electrical Energy Systems M


Anas Shoaib

University of Glasgow, Scotland.

consumed locally. This reduces the need for centrally


I. INTRODUCTION generated power and becomes beneficial for local community.
Wind energy is the most preferred form of renewable energy
for electricity production. The power generated by wind D. Awareness of Green Energy and Connection Costs
turbines over time is very certain due to the uncertain nature of Awareness of green energy can be beneficial to the society
their source. This actually increases the problems inherent to as a whole and to the environment. People will be able to live
the integration of large number of wind turbines into national in a better environment with less CO2 going into the
grid, and making their share difficult to manage. Regulation of atmosphere from the electricity they are using and reduce
voltage and frequency, and successful operation of wind farms global warming. Connection costs in embedded generation is
so that integration of wind power to national grid can be done another social aspect that needs consideration. It must be
efficiently with minimum losses. This technical essay presents decided whether the new connected embedded generation
the discussion from social and technical perspective, and should pay only the costs associated with making the new
presents some viable solutions for efficient energy utilisation. connection (shallow connection) or it should also pay the extra
costs which are related with support of the system (deep
II. SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE connection) [3]. This it to make sure owners are compensated
The electricity from the wind farm is beneficial to local fairly and discouraged for over investment for a system.
communities as they are very near to the source. In addition to
that, they will be using that energy for their own use and the III. WIND TURBINE SYSTEMS
surplus will go to national grid. The invariability of wind or
If a wind farm is connected to large community or some
solar PV allows different technologies to be introduced into
person has installed a small wind turbine, there are usually
the systems so that quality of power is very high for the
three different types of systems used in remote areas:
consumers or sending electricity back to the grid. There are
many social benefits in solving some of the difficult energy Grid-connected
integration problems. Stand-alone
Hybrid
A. Creation of jobs for local people
A. Grid Connected
Wind power companies need people that will be regulating
the electricity at utility scale. In addition to that, wind turbines In grid-connected systems, small wind turbines can reduce
need maintenance to keep up with their performance. This the consumption of grid supplied electricity for different uses.
creates opportunities for local communities. There are many If turbine cant deliver the amount of energy that is required,
different jobs that could be taken up; most important and the grid makes up for the difference. When the wind turbine is
crucial are Safety Engineers, Protection Engineers, Energy generating more electricity than the required load, surplus is
Assessors, Line Engineers and Maintenance Engineers. sent to the grid. There are still many requirements to make
sure quality of electricity that is being supplied to the grid is
B. Educational visits, Research and Development very good and safe to use. There are usually 3 configurations
The wind farm can also be used as an educational resource. for grid connected wind turbines:
It can guide people for an eco-friendly environment to 1. In first configuration, turbines output goes through
enhance the quality of their life and their local area [1]. synchronous generator is variable voltage, variable frequency
Adding to that, knowledge of wind power will be improved alternating current. This power must be passed through an
and there will be more research into different areas. inverter before being fed to the home or grid to make sure grid
Integration and stabilizing of voltage and frequency is has fixed voltage and fixed frequency AC [2]. Self-
something that will be taken as a problem and there will be commutated inverters are used which need a reference from
many new solutions proposed in research and development. the utility grid to hold synchronization. When linked with a
battery they can be used as part of UPS, which is important
C. Allocation of Losses
when there is no wind or in case of a blackout.
There are losses in the power network and allocation of 2. In second configuration, induction generators
these losses must be considered. Embedded generation injects produce grid-quality (easy for both homes and utility) constant
a significant amount of power into the network at off-peak frequency AC power without any inverter. The output of
times, this may increase total losses. On the other hand, during induction generators is regulated by utility power, therefor if
peak-on period, embedded generation may be compensated for grid is not available, generator will not produce power.
reducing the losses in the system because its entire output is 3. In third configuration, turbines output from a
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synchronous generator is variable voltage, variable frequency overhead circuits. For LV cable distribution circuits with low
alternating current. Power must be made in fixed voltage and XR ratio, this method does not work. So due to this, only very
fixed frequency for consumption by locals or grid. Line small embedded generation can be connected to LV networks.
commutated inverters are used which are actuated by utility- Tap-changing transformers and complete dynamic voltage
line power. Synchronous inverters (which are line- control is needed to solve this problem [3].
commutated) will stop functioning during a blackout.
B. Power Quality
B. Stand-alone Due to different sources of electricity to grid, power quality
In stand-alone system, wind turbines deliver energy is an important parameter to consider. Generators are obliged
production directly to local community and are not connected to produce adequate voltage waveform (with limited voltage
to national grid. Production of electricity is directly stored in harmonics content) while consumers are bound not to distort
battery banks or turbine runs in parallel with a diesel too much the current waveform (minor harmonics current
generator. From here, electricity will be converted so it can be content) [3].
used by various devices. Good control system and battery Voltage flicker should be avoided as they represent
backup is needed in this configuration for efficient energy presence of harmonics in voltage wave. Bad case for voltage
consumption and storage. flicker is when a fixed speed wind turbine is connected to a
network with low fault levels. Power output of wind turbine
C. Hybrid
varies rapidly due to wind turbulence, and on a system with
Hybrid system with battery backup for emergency power low fault level, this can give voltage fluctuations. Systems
outages works well in remote areas where there are power cuts with good fault levels will suffer less. In addition, a wind farm
and grid is not available 24/7. Wind is strong in winter when with several turbines will cause less flicker, as variations in
less sunlight is available. Peak operating times of solar and power outputs of different turbines will cancel out.
wind occur at different time, so hybrid systems is a good Voltage and current at any point in distribution system
solution. A good power inverter allows solar panels and wind should have a perfect sine, 50Hz waveform. This does not
turbine to charge a battery bank, even when the grid goes happen in reality, as there are various sources of harmonics
down. In addition to that, there is always a generator to make connected to the networks. Inverter-coupled embedded
sure it will work when batteries run low on storage. Modern generation also introduce harmonics into the network. All of
electronic controllers can operate and shift between these these decrease the energy efficiency and must be solved.
systems automatically.
C. Protection and Stability
IV. TECHNICAL PERSPECTIVE Installation of embedded generation must not affect
distribution network and customers in network. So there are
From technical perspective, there are a few things to look and circuit breakers & isolators to isolate embedded generation
discuss when integrating wind power with national grid or from distribution network on both sides of the system. In
local community is trying to use power for themselves. addition to that, there are under and over voltage relays, under
A. Voltage Regulation and Reactive Power and over frequency relays, voltage presence sensors, over
current and voltage controlled relays to give maximum
Grid must supply electricity to customers at a voltage within
protection and stability. Reverse power relay is added to avoid
specific limits. If a generator at wind turbine is generating
the generator to work as a motor [3].
voltage, it will cause voltage level to rise. This rise depends on
many factors:
V. ENERGY EFFICIENT SOLUTIONS
Type and size of generator
Magnitude and direction of reactive power flow on Some balance of system and energy efficient solutions that are
the network. used in all embedded generation systems whether at utility
Network impedance from infinite busbar to generator scale or within homes are:
Power Compensators
Worst-case scenario is when customer load on network is at
Energy Storage
minimum and embedded generator is giving power. On other
Voltage Regulators
hand, if generator is used on-site, it doesnt affect network
HVDC
voltages.
Voltage drop (|V|) in per unit is given as A. Variable Renewable Energy smoothing by Battery
Energy Storage
|V| = (RP+XQ) / E EQ. (1) Wind power and solar PV may quickly ramp down or
increase abruptly. This can have negative effect for systems
So voltage rise may be limited by controlling the reactive voltage levels in distribution network and system stability.
power Q that is given by the generator in EQ. 1 [3]. In Grid cant absorb this extra wind power produced. Batteries
particular, when Q is negative (generator is taking reactive capture the wasted wind power, so operators can access the
power), it is possible to reach |V| = 0. This method is good power that was unavailable to them in past. This system is
for circuits with high XR ratio, such as higher voltage being used for utility scale wind power and for local
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communities and does not give away any CO2 emissions to the line as well as for voltage fluctuations caused by variations of
environment. Battery backup is a good way to save the energy the load.
that was otherwise going to waste because there was no load
to consume it [5].
If batteries can compensate for changing power levels for
even 20 minutes, this can give grid operator time to ramp up
or turn down power from mainstream power plants. In this
way, large amounts of renewable energy can be added [12].
Figure below shows how batteries are usually connected with
wind power and solar PV panels. Intelligent battery
management system (BMS) makes sure batteries are charged
and discharged efficiently [7].

FIG. 2 [4]

FIG. 1 [9]

Battery storage is used in all types of wind turbine systems.


They can also increase ramping capability during periods of
expected high variability and thus enhances frequency
regulation solving many problems of integration of embedded
generation with grid and homes.
B. Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM)
STATCOMs are part of the flexible AC transmission
systems (FACTS) family. They can solve grid operators
requirements for reactive power compensation, voltage control FIG. 3 [4]
and quick fault currents resolution [6]. Placing a STATCOM
at the point of interconnection will improve network reliability Now we expand the STATCOM in figure 3 and consider a
and protect renewable energy systems against network faults, transmission line between load and generator. Three voltage
voltage drops and other issues that result in wind turbines or sensors E2, E3 and E4 give the line voltages across the
solar arrays going offline [11]. From technical perspective, STATCOM side of step-down transformer, two current
this is a great solution. From social and economic point of sensors I1 and I2 give line current. E1 measures voltage across
view, STATCOMs are expensive, are usually not replaced by DC side of STATCOM. The STATCOM controller compares
all shunt inductors on transmission line, and are installed at the measured line voltages against the reference and determines
end of transmission line. the error. It also compares the measured DC voltage to the dc
Consider a transmission line in figure 2 that has two reference. Using these calculated error values, measured
substations. Voltage at substation A is compensated by shunt voltages and current values, STATCOM controller determines
inductors to maintain voltage across AC transmission line as following [4]:
close as possible to nominal voltage of the power network I. Amount of reactive power STATCOM needs to
voltage. This has some drawbacks as it finds it difficult to tell exchange with the power system with which it is connected
other substations and perfectly compensating voltage across and it ensures that line voltages measured across STATCOM
each segment of transmission line. side of step-down transformer are equal to the AC bus line
On the second substation B, voltage is compensated by voltage.
switch shut inductors and a STATCOM. As this substation is II. It ensures that active power flowing through the
located at the end of transmission line, it is important that STATCOM makes voltages measured across STATCOMs dc
voltage at this substation to close to nominal voltage as much side is equal to dc bus voltage [4].
possible before distributing it to consumers. STATCOM can STATCOM compensates very fast within 5 cycles or less
act faster and compensate for voltage fluctuation across the that than that for the voltage fluctuations across the line as
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well as for voltage fluctuations caused by variations of the VII. REFERENCES


load [4]. STATCOMs are usually used in grid connected and [1] Klaus Skytte, Economic and social aspects of wind
hybrid systems. integration, Joint Programme for Wind Energy Steering
C. High Voltage Direct Current Transmission System Committee Meeting, Norway, pp 5, 2015.
(HVDC) [2] T. Forsyth and P. Tu, Economics of Grid-Connected
Small Wind Turbines in the Domestic Market, Vermont,
HVDC transmission system although expensive, is good for pp 4-5, June 1999.
long distance between wind farm and national grid, as HVAC [3] JM Vignolo, Technical and Commercial Issues of
cables cannot be used due to their alternating current. HVDC Embedded Generation, Cases of study: Argentina and
are the perfect solutions in grid-connected systems and Chile, MIT US, pp. 88-102, Sep. 2000.
offshore wind farms as they generate large amounts of energy. [4] Festo Didactic, Voltage Compensation of AC
An HDVC connection breaks up the two systems Transmission Lines, 1st ed, Quebec, Canada, pp. 16-20,
electrically. Any change of event in grid does not affect July 2016.
voltage level at the on-shore or offshore wind farm. [5] Abhilash M G, Parvathy P, Divyasree Dinesh,
Renewable Energy Integration into Smart grid:
Problems and Solutions,vol. 6, Issue 4, Kerala, India, pp.
2-4, April 2015.
[6] ABB Inc, Energy Efficiency in the Power Grid,
Norwalk, Connecticut 06856, pp 5-7, 2012.
[7] S. Clifford, Resource Management: An end-to-end
architecture for energy storage in the grid, ABB
Review, pp. 6165, April 2014.
[8] S. Meier, S. Norrga, H-P Nee, New Voltage Source
Converter Topology for HVDC Grid Connection of
FIG. 4 [8] Offshore Wind Farms, pp 1-1, Jan 2004.
[9] Terrence Sterling, Integrating Protection with Isolation
The VSC in figure 4 is actually IGBT power in Home Renewable Energy Systems, article, 5th March
semiconductor, one acts as rectifier and other as an inverter. It 2012.
[10] Roger N. Anderson, Distributed Storage-Generation
is also possible to operate wind turbines at different and
Smart Electric Grid of the Future, The Pew Center on
varying frequency for efficient use of wind energy. As HVDC
Global Climate Change and the National Commission on
allows power transmission between unsynchronized systems,
Energy Policy, March 2004.
it can prevent failures from going from one part to the other, [11] ABB Inc Power Systems, STATCOM Dynamic reactive
thus increasing stability [8] HVDC is good from technical power compensation Renewable energy integration
point of view. However, socially there are a few problems. Air solutions, New Berlin, USA, pp 4-6, 2014.
ions, electric and magnetic fields associated with HVD [12] GE Power & Renewables, Brilliant Battery Apps with
transmission lines have effects on ecological communities Wind Turbines, pp 1, 2013.
[13]. [13] William H. Bailey Deborah E. Weil, HVDC Power
Transmission Environmental Issues Review, Lockheed
VI. CONCLUSION Martin Energy Systems, US, pp 37-39, April 1997.
As renewables especially wind and solar power are
sustainable, they are becoming a large source of electricity and
in a few years, they will become a large part of generation to
the grid. It still has unpredictability and variable contribution
and this embedded generation should be integrated to grid as
efficient as possible. From social perspective, efficient energy
consumption will benefit the local communities and they will
be encouraged to get themselves involved in more clean
energy generation and displacing conventional generation with
time. From technical perspective, power quality, voltage
regulation, frequency regulation, protection and stability are
the main areas of consideration when the grid is being
integrated with renewable energy systems. Many solutions
have been suggested and are in use in many countries. FACTs
devices, HVDC transmission systems, energy storage, wide
area monitoring systems and intelligent grid design [11] are all
viable ways to improve energy efficiency.

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