NEC Italia SpA, which calls itself “the smart energy competence center for Europe and the Middle East”, and Ricerca Sistema Energetico SpA (RSE), a specialist in electro-energy research, will on 18 September release details of a new study showing how variable renewable energy sources can actually help balance the grid (rather than upset its balance). In this way, producers of renewable energy will be able to offer additional services to grid operators.
NEC notes that “with recent policy changes across Europe to reduce feed-in tariffs, there is an urgent need to make more efficient use ofNPRES [non-predictable renewable energy sources] in the electricity market by storing and monetising excess energy. Moreover, as more intermittent solar and wind power sources are integrated into transmission and distribution networks, energy storage and dispatching services will be required to ensure the reliability and safety of the electrical system in light of the increased volatility in loads and generation.”
Using the algorithms that RSE has developed to efficiently manage renewable energy parks and energy storage systems, NEC has defined the business case for a new type of ancillary services provider. The company is highlighting how renewable power plants will be able to provide a variety of ancillary services – such as primary frequency regulation, negative balancing power, local congestion relief and local voltage regulation – to the Distribution System and Transmission System Operators (TSO/DSO).
NEC and RSE will publish a paper entitled, “Enabling a distributed generation and energy storage system to provide ancillary services” at the AEIT (the Italian Federation of Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Automation, Computer Science and Telecommunications) annual conference in Trieste, Italy on 18-19 September 2014 outlining the new business cases.
“In an era where more renewable energy is being integrated into the grid, it’s crucial that we anticipate the new solutions that will be required to help to create a cost-effective electricity market,” said Luca Pellizzari, General Manager at NEC Smart Energy Solution Division. “As a global leader in the li-ion energy storage system technology, NEC is paving the way for new business opportunities in the crucial European market which is becoming increasingly complex and competitive.”
“RSE considers the transfer of its knowledge to industry a top priority,” said Massimo Gallanti, Energy System Director at RSE. “Thanks to our participation in many different projects financed by the Italian Economic Development Ministry we have a lot of expertise in the innovative application of energy storage systems in the power grid and this is certainly a competitive advantage for our partners like NEC.”
In the future, NEC predicts distributed demand response assets will provide ancillary services at a cost and quality competitive with traditional gas and coal generators, which today are the primary ancillary service providers. The dispatchingservices provided by distributed generation is a cornerstone of a smart grid, where the TSO/DSO is able to manage any type of traditional and renewable generator, ESS and variable loads, which in turn automatically react to the changes of critical parameters, such as frequency and voltage, in the grid.
With its subsidiary company NEC Energy Solutions Inc., NEC is the world’s leading supplier of lithium-ion grid energy storage systems.