Research program
Renewable generation sustainable development in liberalised electric power systems: technical, economical and management aspects.
University Co-ordinator
Università degli Studi di GENOVA -
INGEGNERIA ELETTRICA - GENOVA(GE)
Research Unit Leader
Stefano MASSUCCO
Description
The aim of the research is to model and validate renewable energy sources, with regard to the hypothesis of their coordinated operation in the perspective of potentially providing energy and ancillary services to the electricity market by distributed generation.. The most significant sources are wind generators coordinated with other types of sources such as fuel cells, cogeneration units, also supplied by biomasses, micro gas turbines.Wind turbine power plants may experience large variations of their output power under variable weather conditions. Fuel cells instead are particularly attractive for their ability to provide energy at high efficiency and to respond quickly to load variations and in general for their flexibility.The research will develop and validate fuel cell and wind generator models and identify the appropriate control relations, by means of simulation tools for regulator response analysis and synthesis.For what concerns biomass generating units, a feasibility analysis, both technical and economical, will be realized, with the aim of maximizing system economics also for estimating the opportunity to sell energy locally or in the market. Production coordination with cogeneration plants will require a survey on control methodologies and on possible innovative technologic solutions. Cooperation with industries and sites localized in the Unit's area is expected, also with the possibility to validate the control procedures by means of operational data.Under the hypothesis of a significant penetration of non programmable renewable sources in power systems, the reserve entity will be evaluated through appropriate computation tools, also resorting to the concept of interruptible loads. It will be necessary to adjust some typical tools for large power system analysis (such as dispatching, power-frequency and voltage regulation) to the new operation conditions (small size, limited inertia, methods and features of interconnection to the grid, etc.) and to the structure imposed by electric market.As a particular application, microturbine generators will be considered by developing adequate models and relevant control systems useful for operation in grid-connected conditions or islanding conditions with privileged loads. The following situations and analysis will be carried on: (a) Grid-connected operation: active and reactive injected power control through current regulation of the inverter section. Decoupled control through dq transformation. (b) Islanding operation: voltage and frequency control through inverter section voltage control. Links are going to be activated for experimental activities at installations in sport centres and civil houses. Another goal of the research will be also assessing dynamic security for isolated networks and/or parts of islands by tuning and developing appropriate tools.The use of load is a natural integration to generation for a coordinated management in case of particular operation, such as islanding. Interruptible Load Management (ILM) may be seen as the short-term part of Demand Side Management (DSM): by means of ILM the utility (or an intermediate actor) gathers interruptible resources to be used in case of price spikes or contingencies. ILM can lead to relevant price reductions in case of high demand. As it will be shown, even a relatively small demand peak reduction in case of high prices can significantly reduce the price of energy. To this extent, the opportunity to acquire and/or adjust market simulation tools will be assessed. Loads can be actors of the market if they have the opportunity to face price volatility, and thus reduce their consumption during high demand periods. The result is the so called load elasticity, which not only reduces the price of energy, but also the environmental impact of electricity production.The research will be aimed at checking the technical possibility of load as an ancillary service provider, especially for power/frequency (P/f) regulation, by comparing its response to the one of typical steam and gas generating units. Some load control methodologies allowing also the realization of secondary regulation will be proposed and modelled, evaluating load response with respect to generation response in case of changes in system operating conditions (load variations, ramping, etc.).
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