Wind and Solar Power – Could have helped to prevent the Indian Power Outage this week

It was questioned if wind and solar power could have been used as a redundant power source in this weeks power outage in India. Yes it could – indirectly.

Wind and Solar power could help to keep the water in the big reservoirs in the mountains. Each MWh from wind turbines or PV systems would keep the “redundant” hydro energy in the storage reservoirs. In case of a shortage in the grid this “redundant” hydro power could be used to stabilize the grid. Especially this year in India and north of India the water levels in the dams are very low … it would be a benefit not to “burn” the available hydro energy during the day when you could use the wind or solar power. There is one issue with not “burning” hydro power: usually you are paid by the amount of energy you put into the grid – not by keeping it for days or weeks. Making money and providing reliable energy supply are two different aspects.

IEEE Spectrum: Lack of Rain a Leading Cause of Indian Grid Collapse

In Europe there is work going on, to use the (surplus) wind power in northern Germany and pump water in the dams in Norway and use it as a huge hydro power storage … and there is another very interesting storage possibility for wind and solar power: Wind Gas or Solar Gas!

What is that? Never heard about it?

http://blog.iec61850.com/2012/06/two-mw-wind-to-gas-converter-build-for.html

I would highly appreciate if I could produce my own gas, store it and use it in winter time (Sothern Germany).

It is just a little bit too expensive … but the technology is available:

http://www.fronius.com/cps/rde/xchg/SID-7EA7CFA3-6E3959B6/fronius_international/hs.xsl/83_18098_ENG_HTML.htm

These ideas and technologies will help to convert the electrical grid into a Smart(er) Grid. Engineers have developed great solutions … it is up to the decision makers to let them do their job!

By the way, Smart Grids have been invented by smart engineers since the 19^th century:

http://blog.iec61850.com/2012/03/smart-grids-19th-century-invention.html

Two MW Wind-to-Gas converter build for E.ON in Germany

Storage of energy is one of the basic building blocks for the future power delivery system. The option of converting electric power into gas is one of the most discussed and promising storage options these days. In February I have discussed this briefly:

Wind and Solar Gas – A Challenging Storage Option

A 2 MW utility scale converter project at E.ON in North Eastern Germany has been announced by Hydrogenics the other day. Up to 30 MWh of energy can be converted from wind power into gas in 24 hours – the gas will be injected into the regional natural gas pipeline, making the natural gas pipeline network a storage system for surplus electrical power generated from renewable resources. Great idea.

Read the complete news report “Hydrogenics wins order from E.ON for 'Power-to-Gas' energy storage project in Germany”

Standards like IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25 (Wind Turbines) are ready to support the monitoring and control of wind turbines, and many other applications.

Wind and Solar Gas – A Challenging Storage Option

As you know, there is a crucial challenge with renewable power generation – wind and solar power are often generated during times when it could not be transported to the load centers! Usually generation has to stop – even the wind is blowing and the sun is shining. So, how to work around?

In November 2011 there was a big conference in Berlin to discuss a new way of storing energy: the existing natural gas network may become a cornerstone for a renewable energy system that provides huge storage, transport and distribution capacities that are hundred times larger than the electric power grid.

Electrons and gas? Yes!

The “SolarFuel” power-to-gas method could convert renewable electricity into CO2 neutral, renewable natural gas.

What does it all mean:

• More renewable electricity could be generated.
• Renewable natural gas stores the energy for days, weeks and months due to huge capacities in the tubes used for transportation and distribution
• Energy is accessible everywhere and at any time.

I remember that our gas utility here in Karlsruhe buried huge tubes (some 100 cm in diameter) in the 90s – this allows to transport and store more gas (volume increases to the second of the diameter). Copper wires can transport more electric power with bigger cables – but the wires do not store more electric power ;-)

The gas storage in Germany could (if full) be tapped for some 6 month!!

The new discussion is about Hybrid Grids: Electric Power, Gas and Heat. More to come soon.

One thing is for sure: We will be challenged by a steep growing demand of Information Models to be added to IEC 61850 for the many aspects of hybrid grids. UCA (the forerunner of IEC 61850) was adapted by the GRI (Gas research institute, USA) for use by gas utilities. This effort culminated in an evaluation of UCA in a gas utility environment at Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Francisco, in the 90s.

Excerpt of logical nodes (called Bricks in UCA) from the document: Integrated UCA(TM) for Gas Industry / Volume 2: Gas Industry Device Object Models.

• Pressure monitors for inlet, intermediate and outlet gas (PMON0, 1, 2 respectively)
• First stage pressure regulating valves (PRVL0, PRVM0 and PRVH0 for low, mid and high range valves respectively
• Gate station flow monitors for low, medium and high flow rates (GSFL0, GSFM0, and GSFH0 respectively)
• Gas quality monitor (QMON0):

Click HERE for the list of 6 reports from GTI (former GRI) [2000]
Click HERE to get some more information on wind and solar gas.
Click HERE for a comparison of IEC 61850 and UCA [2004].

IEC 61850 logical nodes for the gas and heat application domain could easily be defined and (if needed) standardized.