When the weather is sunny, photovoltaics in Poland sometimes produce so much energy that… negative prices appearwhich means… you have to pay extra for someone to take the excess energy. This does not apply to individual recipients, as they always pay.
Negative price conditions usually occur on weekends, when energy demand is lower. Last Sunday, August 4, the producer had to pay more than PLN 500 per megawatt hour on the balancing market to receive electricity for 45 minutes from 10:15 am to 11:00 am, and prices were negative valid from 9:30. a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
During hours of overproduction, or in the terminology of Polish Power Grids “overcontract”, it is beneficial energy reception with storage facilities. at all warehouses are an essential part of any system that wants to move to renewable energy mainly, because they make it possible to store energy when the supply is too high and release it when production decreases and prices are high. We don’t have many of them in Poland.
In us The most important energy storage facilities are pumped storage power plantswhich, in short, works by raising the water to a high level thanks to the flow, and then recovers this flow by draining the water down. Four of them belong to PGE Energia Odnawialna, including Poland’s largest pumped storage power plant in Żarnowiec (716 MW), Porąbka-Żar (500 MW), Dychów (90 MW) and Solina (200 MW) . They have one: Energa (Żydowo 156 MW) and Niedzica Hydroelectric Power Plant with an installation with a capacity of 46 MW.
The problem is, although these power plants produced a steady 1.0-1.2% for several months before. energy in the system, ie about 130-150 GWh per month with occasional fluctuations, in June this year. this share decreased to 0.8 percent. and only 72 GWh, while in July production fell to less than 47 GWh, or only 0.6%. system. In previous years, falling below 100 GWh per month was rare, but the output of these six power plants has never fallen below 61 GWh per month in the past five years.
In other words, when they are needed the most, pumped storage has almost stopped working. Why? We asked PGE.
“The majority is due to the decline in the production of pumped-storage power plants update of ESP Porąbka Żar. In the case of ESP Solina and Dychów, the reason for the decline in production is irrigation drought” – PGE’s press office told Business Insider.
As much as 290 MW of power is disabled due to irrigation drought. In other words, because the weather is sunny, which is favorable for electricity production from photovoltaics, less water flows to pumped storage power plants. Not only do panels produce a lot, but because of the weather we have fewer opportunities to store energy as well.
Application? Pumped-storage power plants like energy storage may not be able to achieve more energy production in cooperation with photovoltaics on sunny and hot summer days, and they will be more efficient in storing wind energy in months cooler and more abundant water.
New power plant
This, of course, is also needed when the wind blows stronger. Work has already begun on the construction of the largest power plant of this type in Poland. Last December, PGE and the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management signed an agreement to finance the construction of a pumped storage power plant in Młoty with a planned capacity of around 1,050 MW. This means that after this investment, the capacity of these energy storage facilities will increase by 75%. today stands at 1,413 MW.
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The cost of building this power plant is estimated at PLN 4-5 billion. The idea of construction dates back to the reign of Władysław Gomułka. Construction began even during the reign of Edward Gierek.
However, this is not a quick and simple task. The Porąbka-Żar Power Plant was built during the time of the General Secretary of the Polish United Workers’ Party, Gierek, for ten years. Back then, construction may have taken longer than it does today, but environmental procedures did not take time.
In Europe alone, more than 40 units of this type are operating today, and 10 new projects for pumped-storage power plants have been announced.
There is another option
If pumped storage is not guaranteed during the dry summer months, what are the alternatives? One of the most important is battery solutions.
Until now, the market for large battery energy storage units has been dominated by Tesla with its Megapacks. In the second quarter of this year has achieved higher income and profits in the warehouse sector with an implementation of 9.4 GWh. Tesla’s previous quarterly record was just over 4 GWh. It will likely start production next year at a new factory in Shanghai, China. But this is where the Chinese come in.
Tianheng, a container energy storage system from the Chinese company CATL, provides a recording capacity of 6.25 MWh. For comparison, Tesla Megapacks can store up to 3.9 MWh. CATL’s research into long-life battery technology has struck a balance between performance and durability, leading the company to offer a 20-year warranty to maintain the energy storage system’s capacity with 15 years on Tesla Megapacks.
In addition, CATL offers the world’s first guarantee of zero battery degradation for such a system over five years of use. As you can see, competition is getting stronger, which is always good news for customers.
Possible solutions also include the production of hydrogen – perhaps a fuel in the future – suitable for energy storage, although its production through hydrolysis for now means a loss of energy input.
Big money in hydrogen
Poland is the third producer and user of hydrogen in Europe, 1.2 million tons per year. Orlen’s plans include building an installation by 2030 at a cost of PLN 7.4 billion, with an expected production of 19 thousand tons of hydrogen of automotive quality every yearhalf of which are to be produced with low or zero emissions. In addition, 100 hydrogen refueling stations in Orlen are to be operational by the end of the decade.
It is also prepared by a team of managers from Westa Investments project in Górzyca, which accepts large-scale production of green hydrogen.
The Yamal pipeline and the planned route for a new logistics corridor for hydrogen from the Nordic countries to Central and Western Europe run close to this city. H2 Energy has already signed contracts for more than 1,500 ha for the realization of projects that provide power from renewable sources.
This potential is to be used to produce green hydrogen. Based on electrolyzers based on PEM technology, which has been known for years (with a loss of about 50% of the input energy), the first phase of the project will be created, enabling production of more than 30 thousand tons of hydrogen per year. Electrolysers with a capacity of around 200 MW will be powered by previously built wind and photovoltaic sources.
The project will enable the production of electricity using renewable sources with a target capacity of approximately 1.5 GW. For comparison, at the end of May this year. the total capacity of photovoltaics and wind turbines in Poland was 27.6 GW – according to ARE data.
Author: Jacek Frączyk, journalist at Business Insider Polska
2024-08-11 09:00:00
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