A Comparative Feasibility Study of the Use of Hydrogen Produced from Surplus Wind Power for a Gas Turbine Combined Cycle Power Plant

Because of the increasing challenges raised by climate change, power generation from renewable energy sources is steadily increasing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially CO2. However, this has escalated concerns about the instability of the power grid and surplus power generated because of the intermittent power output of renewable energy. To resolve these issues, this study investigates two technical options that integrate a power-to-gas (PtG) process using surplus wind power and the gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC). In the first option, hydrogen produced using a power-to-hydrogen (PtH) process is directly used as fuel for the GTCC. In the second, hydrogen from the PtH process is converted into synthetic natural gas by capturing carbon dioxide from the GTCC exhaust, which is used as fuel for the GTCC. An annual operational analysis of a 420-MW-class GTCC was conducted, which shows that the CO2 emissions of the GTCC-PtH and GTCC-PtM plants could be reduced by 95.5% and 89.7%, respectively, in comparison to a conventional GTCC plant. An economic analysis was performed to evaluate the economic feasibility of the two plants using the projected cost data for the year 2030, which showed that the GTCC-PtH would be a more viable option.

Will Aggregator Reduce Renewable Power Surpluses? A System Dynamics Approach for the Latvia Case Study

Power demand-side management has been identified as one of the possible elements towards a more flexible power system in case of increased capacities of variable renewable energy sources—solar and wind energy. The market coordinators or aggregators are introduced to adjust the electricity consumption by following the market situation. However, the role of aggregators is mainly analysed from the economic perspective, and the demand side management is performed to maximise the utilisation of low price power during off-peak hours. However, this research focuses on analysing the introduction of aggregators as a future player to increase the total share of renewable power and decrease the surplus solar and wind electricity occurrence. An in-depth system dynamics model has been developed to analyse the hourly power production and power consumption rates at the national level for the Latvia case study. The results show that introducing aggregators and load shifting based on standard peak shaving can increase the share of surplus power and does not benefit from increased utilisation of solar and wind power. On the contrary, demand-side management based on available RES power can decrease the surplus power by 5%.

Application of Smart Grid and Edge Computing Technologies to Improve The Operational Efficiency of The Supply Chain and Logistics Processes

Energy demand is growing at a very rapid pace worldwide. Conventional energy sources are being replaced steadily by non-conventional sources such as renewable energy sources like wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric etc. This rapid growth in demand for energy compounded by the depletion of conventional, non-renewable energy sources in recent years has brought about a transformation in the energy sector. Households, manufacturers and other consumers of energy can now both produce and consume energy. The flow of energy is bidirectional. They can also either store the surplus power for future use or send it to the grid for sharing with other users of energy. As a result of this transformation, the smart grid came into existence where the producers and the consumers of energy can be the same person and contribute to the supply of energy to the grid.

Integrated Renewable Energy Management System for Reduced Hydrogen Consumption using Fuel Cell

The hybrid energy sources and their behavior may be controlled by monitoring and sensing with the help of a single or multiple control strategies incorporated in the energy management system. Utilization of the battery state of charge (SOC) and reduction in the consumption of hydrogen are the main objectives of battery and fuel cell (FC) based renewable hybrid power systems. The lifespan of the hydrogen storage as well as battery may be improved while improving the cost reduction benefits using these parameters. These objectives are achieved by designing an integrated energy management system (IEMS). A battery, supercapacitor (SC), proton-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) and Photovoltaic (PV) cell are combined to provide the required power to a predetermined load to form a renewable hybrid power system (RHPS). During daylight, PV is the master power source in RHPS. During the shading or night time, FC is the secondary power source. When high load power is required, the FC is supported by the battery. Load fast change or load transient operation is performed by the SC. Maximum SOC value and minimum hydrogen consumption value is obtained simultaneously based on predetermined functions that aids in switching between the state machine control, frequency decoupling and fuzzy logic based integrated strategies in the proposed energy management model. When compared to the stand-alone strategies, the integrated model achieves increased SOC and reduced hydrogen consumption. When maximum value of PV power is attained, the surplus power is displayed at the load. The battery is charged using this surplus power. The stand-alone strategies and integrated strategy results are compared. The attainment of the goal of IEMS is confirmed from this comparison.

Profitability Assessment of Residential Photovoltaic Battery Systems in Japan Using Electric Power Big Data

Residential photovoltaic (PV) battery systems are key technology in the design of low-carbon and resilient energy systems; however, limited research has assessed their profitability. This study aims to evaluate the economic performance of PV battery systems for end-users. The evaluation takes geological, technological, and socio-economic factors into consideration, thereby making the evaluation more comprehensive. We used PV power generation data and power consumption data of more than 40,000 all-electric houses in Japan. We performed scenario analyses with a sensitivity analysis. The results showed that residential PV battery systems were highly profitable when their storage battery operation modes were appropriately utilized at the end of the purchase period for solar power generation in Japan’s feed-in-tariff (FIT) scheme. The profitability, however, varied across regions. The results also indicated that the PV self-consumption rate was more than 50% when charging the battery with surplus power. The results of the sensitivity analysis suggested that the unit prices of grid electricity and the purchasing price of surplus power after the FIT scheme had a significant effect on the profitability of residential PV battery systems.

Method of Priority Order for Simultaneous Solar-Derived Power Usage at a Solar-Powered House and Neighborhood

An advantage of solar-powered houses is the concurrent generation and consumption of power. However, the simultaneous power consumption of a solar-powered house tends to be lower than its actual load consumption. We aim to design a multi-agent system for exchanging the power value information within a solar-powered house and neighborhood in order to maximize simultaneous solar-derived power usage. This study purposes a priority order to determine the simultaneous solar-derived power usage procedure. Using the measurement data of a next-generation solar-powered house on a sunny day, we evaluate the estimation result of the domestic power balance and analyze the time series of each of the power variabilities. From the result, the three types of power usage are classified, and the four phases of the power capacity allocation are defined. We clarify the specific calculation procedure and indicate the availability of simultaneous solar-derived power usage by finding the optimum combination of the power capacity and the usage volume per hour. Finally, we estimate that the total value of available simultaneous solar-derived power usage is approximately 80% of the capacity in the solar-powered house and four hypothetical neighborhood houses, contributing to a drastic reduction in surplus power.

Control Technique of Generation Transfer for Microgrid

When a microgrid is grid-tied to a distribution system, it can provide surplus power generation to the distribution system, if any abnormality or interruption occurs in the distribution system, the microgrid can operate in standalone mode to isolate the impact of the abnormality or interruption. However, if the microgrid can not collect enough information from the distribution system, it may cause the failure of generation transferring of distribution feeders, or even further influence the stability of the distribution system. In this paper, a strategy for the resilient control of a microgrid is proposed. It can solve the above-mentioned problem, reduce the duration of the outage of loads. This strategy is experimented in the microgrid in the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research (INER), the reliability is also analyzed to evaluate the unavailability of the microgrid in INER, and it is verified that the proposed strategy can reduce the duration of the outage of loads, and hence the reliability of a microgrid can be upgraded.

Power usage in the transport sector – potential, costs and greenhouse gas abatement of different well-to-wheel pathways

<p>The increase of variable renewable energy sources (VRE), i.e. wind and solar power, may lead to a certain mismatch between power demand and supply. At the same time, in order to decarbonise the heat and transport sectors, power-based solutions are often seen as promising option, through so-called sector coupling. At times when VRE power supply exceeds demand, the surplus power could be used for producing liquid and gaseous electrofuels. The power is used for electrolysis, producing hydrogen, which can in turn be used either directly or combined with a carbon source to produce hydrocarbon fuels.</p><p>Here, we analyse the potential development of surplus power for the case of Germany, at an ambitious VRE expansion until 2050 and perform a cost analysis of electrofuels at different production levels using sorted residual load curves. These are then compared to biofuels and electric vehicles with the aid of an optimisation model, considering both cost- and greenhouse gas (GHG)-optimal options for the main transport sectors in Germany.</p><p>We find that, although hydrocarbon electrofuels are more expensive than their main renewable competitors, i.e. biofuels, they are most likely indispensable in addition for reaching climate targets in transport. However, the electrofuel potential is constrained by the availability of both surplus power and carbon. In fact, the surplus power potential is projected to remain limited even at currently ambitious VRE targets for Germany and carbon availability is lower in an increasingly renewable energy system unless direct air capture is deployed. In addition, as the power mix is likely to contain fossil fuels for decades to come, electrofuels based on power directly from the mix with associated conversion losses would cause higher GHG-emissions than the fossil transport fuel reference until a very high share of renewables in the power source is achieved. In contrast, electric vehicles are a more climate competitive option under the projected power mix with remaining fossil fuel fractions, due to a superior fuel economy and thereby lower costs and emissions.</p><p>As part of the assessment, we quantify the greenhouse gas abatement costs for different well-to-wheel pathways and provide an analysis and recommendations for a transition to sustainable transport.</p>