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Multi-megawatt battery storage substations
Innovative solutions to integrate renewable energies
Renewable energies are increasingly being integrated into transmission grids – as an important element of smart grids – and, although there are still some hurdles, there are also some innovative solutions.
The introduction of photovoltaic and wind turbine generation systems has been accelerating around the world, and the case for using renewable energy remains strong.
However, because of the intermittency of the renewable sources, the power generation level, or capacity factor, of these renewable energy systems is relatively low and the generation level is not fixed. Generation capacity with these characteristics is sometimes termed non-dispatchable. In order to realise their potential, these technologies must somehow overcome the hurdle of their intermittent nature so that they can be seamlessly integrated into the power grid.
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“One significant and viable solution is to couple a stable form of large-scale electricity storage to a voltage source converter (VSC) with associated control and automation equipment,” explains Ludovic Gris, Power Electronics architect. “The stored energy can be accessed and injected into the grid when power generation is low, or demand is high, and it can be a self-sufficient solution for some regions.”Efficiency is a key weakness of storage solutions, with batteries delivering
only 80 % of the energy input. But on a large scale, this solution based on batteries and VSC can be more economical than others. Community storage schemes could have mid-sized, decentralised storage facilities to manage fluctuations from renewable sources and to reduce the strain on conventional distribution grids. Operators would need to strike a balance between the size of their investment and the potential revenue streams – larger investments can enable the parallel provision of reserve capacity.