By David Chapman / Published on Thu, 2008-06-12 17:03
At any instant, the amount of energy being consumed by users on the electricity grid is exactly matched by the amount of energy being produced. Because of the very large number of consumers, the pattern of demand tends to be quite predictable according to season, day of the week and time of day so that generation needs can be planned many hours ahead. In practice, the forecast is never exact, but it is normally accurate enough that an appropriate combination of generating plants, with some capacity margin, are available to cope with the actual demand.
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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 Stephen Browning / Published on Sun, 2008-05-18 16:40
Both the system and distribution operators need to forecast and monitor the transmission and distribution flows in terms of security and stability. They therefore need a reliable base for predicting demand and generation, both totals for matching and by location for security analysis. The system operator also needs adequate resources allocated to response and reserve duty. Both operators will also have plant allocated for emergency action, (e.g. intertripping), in parts of the system where this is required post fault to avoid breaching circuit thermal limits or local system voltage/stability limits. Introducing such generation control schemes has permitted extra plant, especially renewables, to be installed in parts of the system where they would not be accommodated under conventional (passive continuous operation) security criteria.
Active Distributed Energy Resources can thus be employed by the operators for matching, ancillary services and active local security management.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Fri, 2008-04-04 14:16
Up to 40.8% of the overall electricity demand is supplied by wind power at some moments of the day in the Spanish electricity system. This record constitutes a real challenge for transmission system operators (TSOs).
In more general terms, renewable energy penetration strongly depends on the ability of TSO to evolve towards a new way of operating the system: dedicated predictability for renewable generation, voltage dip management and managing the power balance.
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