energies-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Storages and Power Plant Flexibility for Improving Renewable Energy Penetration

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "F: Electrical Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 13319

Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We invite submissions to a Special Issue of the journal Energies on the topic of Storages and Power Plant Flexibility for Improving Renewable Energy Penetration

The share of renewable sources in the energy mix of several countries is constantly increasing. The idea of having 100% production from renewable is more and more realistic, but several criticalities arise from a technical point of view. Variable renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, are leading the upswing of renewable energy sources and will play a key role in the near future. Apart from the environmental benefits, this change imposes a revision of traditional power generation and management. The traditional power production systems based on fossil fuels will face new challenges since they will compensate both for load variations and variable renewable energy production. The diffusion of renewable energy systems might be hampered by the grid incapacity of absorbing their power output because of their stochastic behavior. Therefore, the transition from a fossil-fuel-based system to a renewable based one is only possible if new technical solutions are conceived and implemented. They may be oriented to allow a greater flexibility of power plants and loads and/or to guarantee a better dispatchability of renewable energy systems. These solutions may include techniques to extend the traditional plant range of operation, the use of storages, hybrid solutions or power to X to power systems. All these technologies may contribute to increase the load following capacity of traditional plant and make renewable energy easier to manage.

This Special Issue would like to encourage original contributions regarding recent developments and concepts related to the management of variable renewable energy sources and the improvement of power plant flexibility. Potential topics include but are not limited to grid scale energy storages, hybrid systems, power to X to power systems, energy network integration, mini and isolated grids with high penetration of renewables, improvement of part load operation of traditional power plants, improvement of power plant start up time and load following capabilities, and strategies for the forecast and management of the power output of renewable energy systems.

Prof. Dr. Lorenzo Ferrari
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Hybrid systems
  • Energy network integration
  • Energy storage
  • Power to X to power
  • Forecast and management strategies
  • Improvement of plant flexibility
  • Improving part load operation
  • Load management

Published Papers (4 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

13 pages, 1556 KiB  
Article
Potentials of Thermal Energy Storage Integrated into Steam Power Plants
by Michael Krüger, Selman Muslubas, Thomas Loeper, Freerk Klasing, Philipp Knödler and Christian Mielke
Energies 2020, 13(9), 2226; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en13092226 - 03 May 2020
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 3366
Abstract
For conventional power plants, the integration of thermal energy storage opens up a promising opportunity to meet future technical requirements in terms of flexibility while at the same time improving cost-effectiveness. In the FLEXI- TES joint project, the flexibilization of coal-fired steam power [...] Read more.
For conventional power plants, the integration of thermal energy storage opens up a promising opportunity to meet future technical requirements in terms of flexibility while at the same time improving cost-effectiveness. In the FLEXI- TES joint project, the flexibilization of coal-fired steam power plants by integrating thermal energy storage (TES) into the power plant process is being investigated. In the concept phase at the beginning of the research project, various storage integration concepts were developed and evaluated. Finally, three lead concepts with different storage technologies and integration points in the power plant were identified. By means of stationary system simulations, the changes of net power output during charging and discharging as well as different storage efficiencies were calculated. Depending on the concept and the operating strategy, a reduction of the minimum load by up to 4% of the net capacity during charging and a load increase by up to 5% of the net capacity during discharging are possible. Storage efficiencies of up to 80% can be achieved. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

11 pages, 1601 KiB  
Article
Impact Analysis of Transmission Congestion on Power System Flexibility in Korea
by Changgi Min
Energies 2020, 13(9), 2191; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en13092191 - 01 May 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1842
Abstract
This study proposes a method to evaluate the impact of transmission congestion on the flexibility of a power system, based on the ramping capability shortage expectation (RSE). Here, flexibility refers to the ability to retain a power balance in response to changes in [...] Read more.
This study proposes a method to evaluate the impact of transmission congestion on the flexibility of a power system, based on the ramping capability shortage expectation (RSE). Here, flexibility refers to the ability to retain a power balance in response to changes in the net load. The flexibility issue arises due to the extensive integration of renewable energy resources; specifically, the higher the degree of integration, and the greater the variability and uncertainty in the power system. Flexibility is further limited by the net transfer capacity (NTC) of transmission lines. Here, we propose a method capable of capturing the extent to which transmission congestion affects the power system, to identify transmission reinforcement options for improved flexibility. In Korea, transmission congestion occurs frequently in regions to the north and southeast. A case study for a Korean power system in 2030 was conducted. Simulation results showed that the impact of transmission reinforcement in flexibility tends to be proportional to the NTC and is greater when the penetration level is low. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

41 pages, 7993 KiB  
Review
Review of Process Modeling of Solid-Fuel Thermal Power Plants for Flexible and Off-Design Operation
by Ioannis Avagianos, Dimitrios Rakopoulos, Sotirios Karellas and Emmanouil Kakaras
Energies 2020, 13(24), 6587; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en13246587 - 14 Dec 2020
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 2930
Abstract
Since the widespread deployment of non-dispatchable, intermittent, and highly variable power production from renewable energy sources (RES), the demand for flexible power production has been steadily growing. As new-built dispatchable power plants have not been very quickly adapted to the emerging flexible operation, [...] Read more.
Since the widespread deployment of non-dispatchable, intermittent, and highly variable power production from renewable energy sources (RES), the demand for flexible power production has been steadily growing. As new-built dispatchable power plants have not been very quickly adapted to the emerging flexible operation, this task has been addressed by existing plants as well. Existing solid-fuel thermal power plants have undergone an extensive study to increase their flexible operation. Thermodynamic process-modeling tools have been extensively used for plant modeling. Steady- and transient-state simulations have been performed under various operating regimes, supplying valuable results for efficient power-plant operation. Flexibility aspects regarding low-load operation and steady operational conditions are mostly investigated with steady-state simulations. Flexibility aspects related to variation over time such as ramping rates are investigated with transient simulations. The off-design operation is mainly attributed to the existing fleet of power plants, struggling to balance between their former operational schemes as base and/or medium-load plants. However, off-design operation is also considered for new plants in the design phase and is included as a simulation aspect. Process modeling turns out to be a proven tool for calculating plant flexibility and predicting extreme operating conditions, defining further steps for a new operational scheme, drafting accident mitigation control procedures or, furthermore, provisioning more complex and cross-field future tasks. A review of the off-design aspect as a simulation approach is undertaken and presented in this work. Finally, challenges and future perspectives for this aspect of solid-fuel thermal power plants are discussed. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

28 pages, 5401 KiB  
Review
Rankine Carnot Batteries with the Integration of Thermal Energy Sources: A Review
by Guido Francesco Frate, Lorenzo Ferrari and Umberto Desideri
Energies 2020, 13(18), 4766; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en13184766 - 12 Sep 2020
Cited by 48 | Viewed by 4351
Abstract
This paper provides an overview of a novel electric energy storage technology. The Thermally Integrated Pumped Thermal Electricity Storage (TI-PTES) stores electric energy as thermal exergy. Compared to standard PTES, TI-PTES takes advantage of both electric and low-temperature heat inputs. Therefore, TI-PTES is [...] Read more.
This paper provides an overview of a novel electric energy storage technology. The Thermally Integrated Pumped Thermal Electricity Storage (TI-PTES) stores electric energy as thermal exergy. Compared to standard PTES, TI-PTES takes advantage of both electric and low-temperature heat inputs. Therefore, TI-PTES is a hybrid technology between storage and electric production from low-temperature heat. TI-PTES belongs to a technology group informally referred to as Carnot Batteries (CBs). As the TI-PTES grows in popularity, several configurations have been proposed, with different claimed performances, but no standard has emerged to date. The study provides an overview of the component and operating fluid selection, and it describes the configurations proposed in the literature. Some issues regarding the performance, the ratio between thermal and electrical inputs, and the actual TI-PTES utilisation in realistic scenarios are discussed. As a result, some guidelines are defined. The configurations that utilise high-temperature thermal reservoirs are more extensively studied, due to their superior thermodynamic performance. However, low-temperature TI-PTES may achieve similar performance and have easier access to latent heat storage in the form of water ice. Finally, to achieve satisfactory performance, TI-PTES must absorb a thermal input several times larger than the electric one. This limits TI-PTES to small-scale applications. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop