By Fernando Nuno / Published on Wed, 2010-02-10 14:28
Some fundamental questions for any country willing to introduce renewables and distributed generation are:
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Tue, 2010-01-12 15:46
The European power system has changed considerably in the last 15 years. The liberalisation and unbundling of the electricity market has led to increased international power flows and reduced influence of the system operators. Meanwhile, renewable and other small-scale uncontrolled and variable energy sources are being installed in the system.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Tue, 2010-01-12 15:01
The European power system has changed considerably in the last 15 years. The liberalisation and unbundling of the electricity market has led to increased international power flows and reduced influence of the system operators. Meanwhile, renewable and other small-scale uncontrolled and variable energy sources are being installed in the system.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Wed, 2009-12-23 11:46
A PSERC Public Webinar
The inherent variability of generation from renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, may
1) increase the operating costs associated with additional ramping requirements, and
2) increase the amount of installed conventional generating capacity needed to maintain the operating reliability of a network.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Thu, 2009-12-10 13:20
The success of the electric vehicle will depend on a number of factors that need to be tackled within the near future. Incentives by governments and the premise of environmental concerns will probably not balance the limited range or the grid integration issues.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2009-08-25 05:30
NGOs and TSOs join forces
Historically, environmentally conscious NGOs and Transmission System Operators (TSOs) were for the most part diametrically opposed on the subject of high-voltage transmission lines. This makes it all the more remarkable that now two NGOs, including WWF, have joined an initiative that advocates an enforcement of the European transmission grid. Such enforcement is considered necessary to enable the integration of renewable energy systems.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Tue, 2009-06-02 11:12
On the January 23, 2008 the European Commission agreed on a far-reaching package of proposals that will deliver the European Council's commitments to fight climate change and promote RE. With the publication of this Climate Action Plan and its several targets, the EU wants to show global leadership in this area.
This report provides an overview of the Kyoto-targets and the objectives of energy from RES in final energy consumption in 2020.
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By David Chapman / Published on Thu, 2008-06-12 16:22
The introduction of renewable and distributed generation at medium and low voltage level will require profound changes in the way the network is structured and managed. The future solution will rely heavily on information technology in generation units, control centres and even in loads.
In the e-book Future Power Systems, Stephen Browning looks at some of the issues and possible solutions.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2008-06-12 05:30
Global average around 20%
The success of wind power is usually measured by the growth in installed capacity. This capacity, however, is peak power: the maximum power at optimum wind speed. The average output of a wind turbine is always lower.
The capacity factor of a wind turbine expresses the ratio of average power output to peak power. Many national and European targets assume a capacity factor of around 30%, while the world’s average capacity factor in 2005 was only 19.6%.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Wed, 2008-06-11 00:00
By Sompop Pattanariyankool and Lester B. Lave
Northeastern United States whose capacity factors are 29-34%, we calculated the optimal size of the transmission line connecting the wind farms to distant customers. For a distance of 500 miles, the optimal transmission capacity is about 86 %; for a 1,000 mile separation, the optimal transmission capacity is 75 %. Building a line at full capacity would increase transmission cost almost 15 % while transmitting only about 4% more electricity to the customer.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Tue, 2008-06-10 11:02
By Peter Børre Eriksen
Denmark is facing rapid development in distributed generation. Currently, wind plus local CHP account for more than 50% of generation. On the western side of the system, hourly wind generation at some points of the year exceeds the domestic demand.
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By Bora Alboyaci / Published on Wed, 2008-06-04 11:48
By Bora Alboyaci and Bahtiyar Dursun
The aim of this paper is to review the connection requirements of wind farms to the grid and how grid codes must be adapted in order to integrate wind power generation capacity without affecting the quality and stability of the electricity system. This paper also summarizes the grid codes that have already been modified to incorporate high levels of wind power. Grid connection requirements in selected countries such as Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and Turkey are investigated in detail.
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By David Chapman / Published on Tue, 2008-05-13 15:42
The electricity distribution system was designed to deliver power from a relatively small number of generating stations to a very large number of small consumers. As such, the power flowed from top to bottom.
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By David Chapman / Published on Tue, 2008-05-13 13:54
Distributed Generation, or dispersed generation, (DG), refers to the local generation of electricity (and the cogeneration of heat) often, but not essentially, from renewable sources. It offers the opportunity to generate electricity from locally available fuels that might otherwise be unexploited, so helping to reduce the environmental effects of electricity production and improve security of supply.
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