Frequency control support of a wind-solar isolated system by a hydropower plant with long tail-race tunnel

Pumped storage hydro plants (PSHP) can provide adequate energy storage and frequency regulation capacities in isolated power systems having significant renewable energy resources. Due to its high wind and solar potential, several plans have been developed for La Palma Island in the Canary archipelago, aimed at increasing the penetration of these energy sources. In this paper, the performance of the frequency control of La Palma power system is assessed, when the demand is supplied by the available wind and solar generation with the support of a PSHP which has been predesigned for this purpose. The frequency regulation is provided exclusively by the PSHP. Due to topographic and environmental constraints, this plant has a long tail-race tunnel without a surge tank. In this configuration, the effects of pressure waves cannot be neglected and, therefore, usual recommendations for PID governor tuning provide poor performance. A PI governor tuning criterion is proposed for the hydro plant and compared with other criteria according to several performance indices. Several scenarios considering solar and wind energy penetration have been simulated to check the plant response using the proposed criterion. This tuning of the PI governor maintains La Palma system frequency within grid code requirements.     

An overview of the environmental,economic, and material developments of the solar and wind sources coupled with the energy storage systems

There is a constant growth in energy consumption and consequently energy generation around the world. During the recent decades, renewable energy sources took heed of scientists and policy makers as a remedy for substituting traditional sources. Wind and photovoltaic (PV) are the least reliable sources because of their dependence on wind speed and irradiance and therefore their intermittent nature. Energy storage systems are usually coupled with these sources to increase the reliability of the hybrid system. Environmental effects are one of the biggest concerns associated with the renewable energy sources. This study summarizes the last and most important environmental and economic analysis of a grid‐connected hybrid network consisting of wind turbine, PV panels, and energy storage systems. Focusing on environmental aspects, this paper reviews land efficiency, shaded analysis of wind turbines and PV panels, greenhouse gas emission, wastes of wind turbine and PV panels' components, fossil fuel consumption, wildlife, sensitive ecosystems, health benefits, and so on. A cost analysis of the energy generated by a hybrid system has been discussed. Furthermore, this study reviews the latest technologies for materials that have been used for solar PV manufacturing. This paper can help to make a right decision considering all aspects of installing a hybrid system. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

When intermittent power production serves transient loads

Renewable power generation exhibits notorious intermittence. The power load varies daily and also seasonally. The topic of renewable generation, storage and grid interfacing is complex in that it brings into one setting many diverse interests and technologies. Our long-term goal is to help define ways to profitably increase renewable generation. In this paper, we focus on normal day for a grid operator, PJM, (Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland). The variability of wind and (and assumed) solar outputs require a certain capability for load following or storage. Using dynamic modelling, we estimate the variability of the wind output and we simulate a projected solar penetration of 3% of new capacity. To save for eventual use every unit of energy thus generated, a storage system must have the capability to levelize the supply of renewable power. The capacity requirements for storage and generation of such a system are mapped out in 1 min intervals, and are used to define the capacities and ramp rates for a hypothetical pumped storage plant. Knowledge of weather patterns may be helpful to plan dispatch and storage of renewable energy. The results of a brief excursion into the difficult topic of weather patterns are recorded here too.     

Design and set up of a hybrid power system (PV-WT-URFC) for a stand-alone application in Mexico

The Mexican territory has a large potential for renewable energy development, such as geothermal, hydro, biofuels, wind and solar. Thus, a 2.5 kW hybrid power system (solar, wind and hydrogen) was designed and installed to meet the power demand for a stand-alone application at the University of Zacatecas. The hybrid unit integrates three power energy sources –a photovoltaic system (PV), a micro-wind turbine (WT), a prototype of a unitized regenerative fuel cell (URFC) and energy storage devices (batteries)– in addition to their interaction methodology. The main contribution of this work is the URFC integration to a hybrid power system for the production of H₂ (water electrolyzer mode) and energy (fuel cell mode). These three energy technologies were connected in parallel, synchronized to the energy storage system and finally coupled to a power conversion module. To achieve the best performance and energy management, an energy management and control strategy was developed to the properly operation of the power plant. A meteorological station that has wireless sensors for the temperature, the humidity, the solar radiation and the wind speed provides the necessary information (in real time) to the monitor and control software, which computes and executes the short and mid–term decisions about the energy management and the data storage for future analysis.     

Optimal energy management system for stand-alone wind turbine/photovoltaic/hydrogen/battery hybrid system with supervisory control based on fuzzy logic

This paper presents a novel hourly energy management system (EMS) for a stand-alone hybrid renewable energy system (HRES). The HRES is composed of a wind turbine (WT) and photovoltaic (PV) solar panels as primary energy sources, and two energy storage systems (ESS), which are a hydrogen subsystem and a battery. The WT and PV panels are made to work at maximum power point, whereas the battery and the hydrogen subsystem, which is composed of fuel cell (FC), electrolyzer and hydrogen storage tank, act as support and storage system. The EMS uses a fuzzy logic control to satisfy the energy demanded by the load and maintain the state-of-charge (SOC) of the battery and the hydrogen tank level between certain target margins, while trying to optimize the utilization cost and lifetime of the ESS. Commercial available components and an expected life of the HRES of 25 years were considered in this study. Simulation results show that the proposed control meets the objectives established for the EMS of the HRES, and achieves a total cost saving of 13% over other simpler EMS based on control states presented in this paper.     

Impact of hydrogen energy storage on California electric power system: Towards 100% renewable electricity

Decarbonization of the power sector is a key step towards greenhouse gas emissions reduction. Due to the intermittent nature of major renewable sources like wind and solar, storage technologies will be critical in the future power grid to accommodate fluctuating generation. The storage systems will need to decouple supply and demand by shifting electrical energy on many different time scales (hourly, daily, and seasonally). Power-to-Gas can contribute on all of these time scales by producing hydrogen via electrolysis during times of excess electrical generation, and generating power with high-efficiency systems like fuel cells when wind and solar are not sufficiently available. Despite lower immediate round-trip efficiency compared to most battery storage systems, the combination of devices used in Power-to-Gas allows independent scaling of power and energy capacities to enable massive and long duration storage. This study develops and applies a model to simulate the power system balance at very high penetration of renewables. Novelty of the study is the assessment of hydrogen as the primary storage means for balancing energy supply and demand on a large scale: the California power system is analyzed to estimate the needs for electrolyzer and fuel cell systems in 100% renewable scenarios driven by large additions of wind and solar capacities. Results show that the transition requires a massive increase in both generation and storage installations, e.g., a combination of 94 GW of solar PV, 40 GW of wind, and 77 GW of electrolysis systems. A mix of generation technologies appears to reduce the total required capacities with respect to wind-dominated or solar-dominated cases. Hydrogen storage capacity needs are also evaluated and possible alternatives are discussed, including a comparison with battery storage systems.     

A current and future state of art development of hybrid energy system using wind and PV-solar: A review

The wind and solar energy are omnipresent, freely available, and environmental friendly. The wind energy systems may not be technically viable at all sites because of low wind speeds and being more unpredictable than solar energy. The combined utilization of these renewable energy sources are therefore becoming increasingly attractive and are being widely used as alternative of oil-produced energy. Economic aspects of these renewable energy technologies are sufficiently promising to include them for rising power generation capability in developing countries. A renewable hybrid energy system consists of two or more energy sources, a power conditioning equipment, a controller and an optional energy storage system. These hybrid energy systems are becoming popular in remote area power generation applications due to advancements in renewable energy technologies and substantial rise in prices of petroleum products. Research and development efforts in solar, wind, and other renewable energy technologies are required to continue for, improving their performance, establishing techniques for accurately predicting their output and reliably integrating them with other conventional generating sources. The aim of this paper is to review the current state of the design, operation and control requirement of the stand-alone PV solar–wind hybrid energy systems with conventional backup source i.e. diesel or grid. This Paper also highlights the future developments, which have the potential to increase the economic attractiveness of such systems and their acceptance by the user.     

Modeling,design, and optimization of a cost‐effective and reliable hybrid renewable energy system integrated with desalination using the division algorithm

People in the Middle East are facing the problem of freshwater shortages. This problem is more intense for a remote region, which has no access to the power grid. The use of seawater desalination technology integrated with the generated energy unit by renewable energy sources could help overcome this problem. In this study, we refer a seawater reverse osmosis desalination (SWROD) plant with a capacity of 1.5 m³/h used on Larak Island, Iran. Moreover, for producing fresh water and meet the load demand of the SWROD plant, three different stand‐alone hybrid renewable energy systems (SAHRES), namely wind turbine (WT)/photovoltaic (PV)/battery bank storage (BBS), PV/BBS, and WT/BBS are modeled and investigated. The optimization problem was coded in MATLAB software. Furthermore, the optimized results were obtained by the division algorithm (DA). The DA has been developed to solve the sizing problem of three SAHRES configurations by considering the object function's constraints. These results show that this improved algorithm has been simpler, more precise, faster, and more flexible than a genetic algorithm (GA) in solving problems. Moreover, the minimum total life cycle cost (TLCC = 243 763$), with minimum loss of power supply probability (LPSP = 0%) and maximum reliability, was related to the WT/PV/BBS configuration. WT/PV/BBS is also the best configuration to use less battery as a backup unit (69 units). The batteries in this configuration have a longer life cycle (maximum average of annual battery charge level) than two other configurations (93.86%). Moreover, the optimized results have shown that utilizing the configuration of WT/PV/BBS could lead to attaining a cost‐effective and green (without environmental pollution) SAHRES, with high reliability for remote areas, with appropriate potential of wind and solar irradiance.     

Renewable power for China: Past,present, and future

This paper briefly examines the history, status, policy situation, development issues, and prospects for key renewable power technologies in China. The country has become a global leader in wind turbine and solar photovoltaic (PV) production, and leads the world in total power capacity from renewable energy. Policy frameworks have matured and evolved since the landmark 2005 Renewable Energy Law, updated in 2009. China’s 2020 renewable energy target is similar to that of the EU. However, China continues to face many challenges in technology development, grid-integration, and policy frameworks. These include training, research and development, wind turbine operating experience and performance, transmission constraints, grid interconnection time lags, resource assessments, power grid integration on large scales, and continued policy development and adjustment. Wind and solar PV targets for 2020 will likely be satisfied early, although domestic demand for solar PV remains weak and the pathways toward incorporating distributed and building-integrated solar PV are uncertain. Prospects for biomass power are limited by resource constraints. Other technologies such as concentrating solar thermal power, ocean energy, and electricity storage require greater attention.     

应用于平抑风功率的燃氢燃气轮机储能系统控制策略研究

储能技术可用于提高风电并网能力,因此其储能系统及控制策略成为研究热点。提出将燃氢燃气轮机作为储能系统主要部分,低通滤波器结合模糊控制作为其平抑风功率的控制策略。通过设定储氢罐容量,对15台1.5 MW风机的历史风功率数据进行了处理。结果表明：低通滤波器结合模糊控制能有效平抑风功率至限制值,实现平抑指标,并得到储氢罐容量的设置限制;可实现储能时燃气轮机不工作,耗能时燃气轮机工作,当储氢罐容量为0.017 m³时,燃气轮机输出功率为0.1 MW。在将燃气轮机作为平抑风功率的储能系统时,需将燃气轮机的启停控制作为今后的研究重点。     

Renewable power for China: Past, present, and future

This paper briefly examines the history, status, policy situation, development issues, and prospects for key renewable power technologies in China. The country has become a global leader in wind turbine and solar photovoltaic (PV) production, and leads the world in total power capacity from renewable energy. Policy frameworks have matured and evolved since the landmark 2005 Renewable Energy Law, updated in 2009. China’s 2020 renewable energy target is similar to that of the EU. However, China continues to face many challenges in technology development, grid-integration, and policy frameworks. These include training, research and development, wind turbine operating experience and performance, transmission constraints, grid interconnection time lags, resource assessments, power grid integration on large scales, and continued policy development and adjustment. Wind and solar PV targets for 2020 will likely be satisfied early, although domestic demand for solar PV remains weak and the pathways toward incorporating distributed and building-integrated solar PV are uncertain. Prospects for biomass power are limited by resource constraints. Other technologies such as concentrating solar thermal power, ocean energy, and electricity storage require greater attention.     

Analysis and characterization of wind-solar-constant torque spring hybridized model

Solar and wind are the most promising renewable energy resources. But their unpredictable and varying nature prevents them from being used as the sole resource for power generation. This paper presents a model of wind and solar thermal hybrid power plant with a spring storage system which is expected to play an efficient role in combating with the drawbacks related to renewable power generation. In the proposed scheme, wind energy is harnessed by a hybrid vertical axis wind turbine, solar energy is utilized by a Stirling engine, and the surplus energy is stored in a winding spring. The paper discusses the working methodologies and analyses the performance of such 2.6 kW hybrid power plant model. It has been observed that the plant is capable of consistently generating 50% of its rated capacity irrespective of limitations in solar and wind resources.     

含混合式抽水蓄能电站的梯级水电站优化调度

为提高梯级水电站调度运行效益、优化水库水位变化过程、减少弃水,考虑湖北省某流域梯级水电站规划新增混合抽水蓄能电站,将抽水蓄能机组作为水电站发电备用机组或利用其抽水工况实现梯级水电站年发电量的最大化。针对不同来水频率下服从皮尔逊Ⅲ型分布的天然入库,提出逐步优化算法(POA)与水位廊道耦合方法,求解含混合抽水蓄能的梯级水电站调度模型,能有效保证在多约束条件下构建发电量最大的中长期调度规则。算例结果表明,新增混合抽水蓄能电站后不仅可增加本级水电站发电量,还可提高抽水发电转换效率、减少弃水,为梯级水电站规划新增抽水蓄能电站提供参考。     

Optimal design and techno-economic analysis of a hybrid solar–wind power generation system

Solar energy and wind energy are the two most viable renewable energy resources in the world. Good compensation characters are usually found between solar energy and wind energy. This paper recommend an optimal design model for designing hybrid solar–wind systems employing battery banks for calculating the system optimum configurations and ensuring that the annualized cost of the systems is minimized while satisfying the custom required loss of power supply probability (LPSP). The five decision variables included in the optimization process are the PV module number, PV module slope angle, wind turbine number, wind turbine installation height and battery capacity. The proposed method has been applied to design a hybrid system to supply power for a telecommunication relay station along south-east coast of China. The research and project monitoring results of the hybrid project were reported, good complementary characteristics between the solar and wind energy were found, and the hybrid system turned out to be able to perform very well as expected throughout the year with the battery over-discharge situations seldom occurred.     

并网风光互补资源评价与系统容量优化配置

为降低风电并网后冲击电网,充分利用风能和太阳能等清洁能源,以并网风光互补发电系统年内出力最平稳为前提,对风光互补资源评价和容量优化配置方法进行了研究。基于平均距平百分率和变异系数等指标,提出了衡量年内发电量波动性的方法,以发电量年内波动性最小作为求解条件,建立了风光互补系统最优装机容量比例计算方法,并确定了进行风光互补性资源禀赋定量评价的指标。以湖北省内石首市桃花山和阳新县富池风光资源状况为计算实例,验证了该方法的正确性。     

Grid connected fuel cell and PV hybrid power generating system design with Matlab Simulink

Renewable energy sources have been taken the place of the traditional energy sources and especially rapidly developments of photovoltaic (PV) technology and fuel cell (FC) technology have been put forward these renewable energy sources (RES) in all other RES. PV systems have been started to be used widely in domestic applications connected to electrical grid and grid connected PV power generating systems have become widespread all around the world. On the other hand, fuel cell power generating systems have been used to support the PV generating so hybrid generation systems consist of PV and fuel cell technology are investigated for power generating. In this study, a grid connected fuel cell and PV hybrid power generating system was developed with Matlab Simulink. 160 Wp solar module was developed based on solar module temperature and solar irradiation by using real data sheet of a commercial PV module and then by using these modules 800 Wp PV generator was obtained. Output current and voltage of PV system was used for input of DC/DC boost converter and its output was used for the input of the inverter. PV system was connected to the grid and designed 5 kW solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system was used for supporting the DC bus of the hybrid power generating system. All results obtained from the simulated hybrid power system were explained in the paper. Proposed model was designed as modular so designing and simulating grid connected SOFC and PV systems can be developed easily thanks to flexible design.     

Framework design of a hybrid energy system by combining wind farm with small gas turbine power plants

Owing to the stochastic characteristic of natural wind speed, the output fluctuation of wind farm has a negative impact on power grid when a large-scale wind farm is connected to a power grid. It is very difficult to overcome this impact only by wind farm itself. A novel power system called wind-gas turbine hybrid energy system was discussed, and the framework design of this hybrid energy system was presented in detail in this paper. The hybrid energy system combines wind farm with several small gas turbine power plants to form an integrated power station to provide a relatively firm output power. The small gas turbine power plant has such special advantages as fast start-up, shutdown, and quick load regulation to fit the requirement of the hybrid energy system. Therefore, the hybrid energy system uses the output from the small gas turbine power plants to compensate for the output fluctuation from the wind farm for the firm output from the whole power system. To put this hybrid energy system into practice, the framework must be designed first. The capacity of the wind farm is chosen according to the capacity and units of small gas turbine power plants, load requirement from power grid, and local wind energy resource distribution. Finally, a framework design case of hybrid energy system was suggested according to typical wind energy resource in Xinjiang Autonomous Region in China.     

Framework design of a hybrid energy system by combining wind farm with small gas turbine power plants

Owing to the stochastic characteristic of natural wind speed, the output fluctuation of wind farm has a negative impact on power grid when a large-scale wind farm is connected to a power grid. It is very difficult to overcome this impact only by wind farm itself. A novel power system called wind-gas turbine hybrid energy system was discussed, and the framework design of this hybrid energy system was presented in detail in this paper. The hybrid energy system combines wind farm with several small gas turbine power plants to form an integrated power station to provide a relatively firm output power. The small gas turbine power plant has such special advantages as fast start-up, shutdown, and quick load regulation to fit the requirement of the hybrid energy system. Therefore, the hybrid energy system uses the output from the small gas turbine power plants to compensate for the output fluctuation from the wind farm for the firm output from the whole power system. To put this hybrid energy system into practice, the framework must be designed first. The capacity of the wind farm is chosen according to the capacity and units of small gas turbine power plants, load requirement from power grid, and local wind energy resource distribution. Finally, a framework design case of hybrid energy system was suggested according to typical wind energy resource in Xinjiang Autonomous Region in China.     

The role of pumped storage systems towards the large scale wind integration in the Greek power supply system

In the recent years, the debate on the necessity of pumped storage systems in the Greek power supply system has started. In the current decade, the Greek power system will gradually try higher RES penetration, mainly due to wind energy and photovoltaics integration. Variability of wind and PV generation and the current structure of the Greek power system introduce technical constraints, which should be taken into consideration in the forthcoming large scale RES integration. This paper examines the ability of the Greek power system to absorb renewable power and the necessity of pumped storage systems. The feasibility of pumped storage systems is discussed in three different scenarios of wind–photovoltaics integration. Results show that for the gradual increase of variable output RES, pumped storage systems are required, but the feasibility of pumped storage systems is not proved in the intermediate scenarios of RES integration.