Too Much Electricity Can Be Just as Dangerous as Too Little: "Operating the Power Grid at Its Limit During Sunny Holidays"
During bright vacation periods, we operate our power network near max capacity
Cranking up those fans on a hot summer day might be a delight, but grid operators are faced with an equally challenging issue: an oversupply of electricity. On sunny holidays, when wind farms and solar plants produce significantly more energy than needed, it puts the power grid to its limits.
This surplus is like a double-edged sword for grid operators like Werner Goetz, CEO of Baden-Württemberg transmission grid operator TransnetBW. While it reflects progress in expanding renewable energy, it also creates a balancing act between supply and demand - a task that isn't easy with this level of volatility.
So surplus energy isn't "free and clear" news. While it's beneficial for consumers to receive electricity without extra costs, grid operators must adapt to the new generation and consumption conditions in the long run.
Investment in renewable energy has seen a substantial increase under the traffic light coalition, but the question remains: should we concentrate on network expansion first, given that the network is already running at its limit? It's crucial to synchronize the expansion of renewables with network expansion to avoid overloading the grid.
Grid operators have to play a delicate game, managing the difference between locally sourced energy and demand across various regions. This is especially true in situations like Hellbrisen or Dunkelflauten, where the grid reaches its limits. In such cases, grid operators operate the network at its limit to keep the situation manageable. However, this requires regulatory interventions, i.e., changes to the rules, and the network needs to be expanded and upgraded.
The European network is already highly interconnected, but the degree of intermeshing and transport capacities must increase to ensure better network performance, contributing to lower electricity prices and a more reliable power supply. In total, Europe-wide network expansion may cost around 300 billion euros. It's essential to invest in the German network to direct power from the north to the south.
To better manage the challenges of integrating renewable energy sources, energy storage systems, Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), advanced inverter standards, dynamic export limits, smart grid technologies, decentralized power generation, policy and infrastructure support, load management, and energy monitoring can prove beneficial. These solutions help strike a balance between renewable energy expansion and power grid operations, ensuring a more sustainable future.
- The community policy and employment policy should consider the investment in advanced inverter standards, energy storage systems, and Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) to better manage the challenges of integrating renewable energy sources into the power grid.
- In the field of environmental science, research into energy technologies and policy might be crucial to developing strategies for dealing with overproduction of electricity, particularly during sunny holidays when renewable energy sources such as wind farms and solar plants produce excess energy.
- The finance and industry sectors should collaborate with grid operators to assess the potential costs and benefits of network expansion, given that current networks are already operating at their limits due to the surplus of renewable energy production.
- Given the growing focus on climate-change and the expansion of renewable energy, it is imperative for the environmental-science and technology domains to work closely with policy makers to establish regulations that promote the delayed-start of renewable energy production during times of energy surplus, thus preventing the overloading of the power grid.
