Grid balancing with a large‐scale electrolyser providing primary reserve

Abstract

As the share of renewable energy sources increases, the grid frequency becomes more unstable. Therefore, grid balancing services will become more important in the future. Dedicated devices can be installed close to the point where offshore wind farms are connected to the transmission grid on land. There, it can be used to attenuate power variations, reduce congestion and offer grid balancing. These ancillary services can create significant economic revenue. In this paper, the provision of the primary reserve by means of a large hydrogen electrolyser of 25 MW is investigated for the specific case of the Belgian transmission system. The electrolyser is used to convert water and excess power to hydrogen gas, which is injected into the natural gas grid. The revenue for primary reserve (R1) provision is analysed on a techno-economic model, including capital costs, operational costs, the revenue of the generated hydrogen and oxygen products and the ancillary service income. The revenue depends strongly on the contracted power-band. Therefore, it is optimised to yield maximum revenue. The results show that providing R1 creates a considerable revenue. Therefore, a large electrolyser can be a good candidate to buffer excess renewable energy into green gas while simultaneously providing grid support.

Flexibility Services Provision by Frequency-Dependent Control of On-Load Tap-Changer and Distributed Energy Resources

“…Flexibility services provision by the integration of different sectors, e.g. utilisation of EV batteries, electric heating/electric heat storages as well as electrolysis to produce greed hydrogen [27], is increasingly important in future power systems [28]. Regarding EVs at home, they could also participate in frequency control by disconnecting or stopping charging at level 2 under-frequencies ( Fig.…”

Wind and Solar Intermittency and the Associated Integration Challenges: A Comprehensive Review Including the Status in the Belgian Power System

“…Being able to store the surplus of intermittent RES when load demand is low and release it during peak hours, ESSs are one of the desiring options for mitigating RES intermittency, shown in Figure 13 [139]. Furthermore, ESSs can provide additional system service for the grid, making them a unique technology to be utilised in combination with RES [140,141]. Generally, ESSs can be classified into five main categories in terms of the form of energy in which electricity is stored-mechanical, electrochemical, chemical, electromagnetic and thermal.…”

“…Due to the high energy density and other favourable attributes, Hydrogen Fuel Cell (HFC) has attracted attention in the past years [145,146]. However, as a result of the high electrolyser costs and fairly low hydrogen price, the direct conversion of electrical energy to hydrogen is not economically desiring [141]. Among other existing FCs, Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC), Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC), Alkaline Fuel Cells (AFC), and Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) are the most known ones [142].…”

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