The firm says the rise of intermittent renewables - which undermine the profitability of large baseload generators but still require backup power - will push annual revenues from flexibility to nearly £3 billion by the end of the next decade.
This is important because this capacity will not be as efficient as baseload generators such as combined cycle gas turbine generators. They will need to respond quicker and as a result they will have higher emissions. So when the wind is not blowing, the grid operators will have to resort to these fast acting plant or reducing demand. It still remains to be seen how batteries will operate in practice on such a large scale.
The same is happening here in Ireland. Capacity of demand side response units, usually diesel generators, are now at 260MW.
Full article here:
http://utilityweek.co.uk/news/flexible-capacity-to-exceed-25gw-by-2030/1316312#.Wf3-RWi0PIV
You are scaremongering. Even I know there is not one source of energy producing electricity at any one time.
ReplyDeleteA bigger concern for the grid is a large gas power station suddenly going off line due to an outage. These bloggers with rose tinted glasses never seam to report on that. The information they give out is highly selective and misleading.
DeleteThere is no need for large amounts of fast acting plant on the grid. The last time Ireland and UK relied on fast acting plant was in the 1960s and 70s when modern technology was not available. Now we have CCGT which is most efficient form of electricity generation. We are moving backwards because of renewables.
There is zero benefit in moving the reimbursement of the PSO levy from the renewable operator to the peaking operator. Just a different snout in the subsidy trough as we avoid addressing the core issue - dispatchability of electricity generation.
ReplyDeleteThe intermittent nature of renewables is well understood after 30 years of deployment. The true cost of renewables will only be apparent when generation plants are required to host their own peaking plant such that their grid connection is a dispatchable resource.