Impact of increasing volatility of generation and demand on the security level of supply (system stability)

Project Number 345

In order to achieve the goal of the European Union to cover 20 % of the primary energy consumption by renewable energy sources until 2020, the penetration of renewable electricity generation must be significantly raised in comparison to the contemporary level.

For the case of Germany this implicates a rise of renewables share of electricity generation to 30 % by 2020. The main part of the installed and forecasted renewable generation depends on intermitting energy sources such as wind and sun.

The integration of this increasing share of intermitting generation while maintaining the present security level of supply confronts the existing power system with a big challenge.

The fundamental problems are that the intermitting generation does not necessarily fit the power demand and is often located far away from the load centres. This results in physical limitations for integration of intermitting generation with regard to the existing infrastructure.

The main objective of the project is to determine the physical limitations for integration of intermitting generation into the power system. Furthermore, different measures to raise the integration potential are analyzed (e.g. more flexible conventional power plants, the integration of energy storage devices, power system extension or load management).

The research project is carried out from June 2011 to October 2013 by the following Institutes:

• Institute of Electrical Power Engineering of the Rostock University/Germany (Project manager: Prof. Harald Weber)

• Institute of Combustion and Power Plant Technology of the Stuttgart University/Germany (Project manager: Florian Gutekunst)

The investigations will be supported by the European Working Group Power Plant-Grid.

The research work will benefit from comprehensive results of VGB projects 283/333 “Impact on intermitting wind power net supply on power plant operation” and 285/306/332 “Reduction of power plant stresses from grid control”.