Effect of Hybrid Power Station Installation in the Operation of Insular Power Systems

Abstract

Greece has a large number of islands that are isolated from the main interconnected Greek power system; however, a majority of them are to be interconnected in the mainland grid over the next decade. A large number of these islands present a significant amount of wind and solar potential. The nature of load demand and renewable production is stochastic; thus, the operation of such isolated power systems can be improved significantly by the installation of a large-scale energy storage system. The role of storage is to compensate for the long and short-term imbalances between power generation and load demand. Pumped hydro storage (PHS) systems represent one of the most mature technologies for large-scale energy storage. However, their advantages have not been proven in practice for cases of medium and small-sized isolated insular systems. Regarding Greece, which contains a large number of isolated insular systems, a PHS system in the island of Ikaria started its test operation in 2019, whereas in Europe only one PHS system operates in El Hierro (Canary Islands). This paper studies the effect of installing a wind-PHS hybrid power station in the operation of the insular power system of Samos, Greece, according to the latest regulatory framework. The implemented analysis uses real hourly data for a whole year, and examines the effects of such an installation considering investors’ and power system operators’ viewpoints. More specifically, the economic viability of this project under different billing scenarios is compared, and its impact on the insular power system operation for various PHS sizes is examined.

Combined Operation of Wind-Pumped Hydro Storage Plant with a Concentrating Solar Power Plant for Insular Systems: A Case Study for the Island of Rhodes

“…Three hybrid stations of different size in Samos were shown to increase the capacity factor of the island, with a penetration of 39% [42]. The annual simulation of energy production in the island of Ikaria was reported with a Wind/PHS increasing the RES penetration by 50% [43].…”

Analytical Approach to Understanding the Effects of Implementing Fast-Frequency Response by Wind Turbines on the Short-Term Operation of Power Systems

“…It represents a power system (with a rated frequency of 50 Hz) dominated by thermal and wind generation within a frequency control area. This is a typical case of many island electric systems, in which the excursions of the frequency (either under normal conditions, due to intermittent injection of power from non-conventional renewable energy sources, or in contingency situations, due to the sudden loss of generation units or consumption centers) are very pronounced compared to a continental system [38,39]. In the example illustrated in Figure 3, the thermal generation is represented by the linearized model of the prime mover of a steam turbine and its speed governor [35].…”

Modelo simplificado de una interfaz de conexión a la red basada en un convertidor electrónico de potencia para estudios de red en régimen dinámico

“…Esta situación es de enorme preocupación en sistemas eléctricos débiles y aislados, en los cuales la cuota de participación de la generación renovable en el mix energético es equiparable o supera a la generación convencional, tal como lo muestran estudios publicados en [9][10][11]. No obstante, muchas de las soluciones que se proponen en la literatura para mitigar los inconvenientes antes expuestos están basados justamente en la utilización de más convertidores electrónicos, normalmente, asociados a sistemas de almacenamiento energético (baterías, volantes de inercia, supercondensadores, entre otros).…”