Impact of the connections of large-scale wind and solar generation in the brazilian interconnected..
Djalma M. Falcão e Glauco N. Taranto (orgs.)
The growth of installed capacity of wind and solar generation in Brazil has exceeded expectations. Currently, the country has 19.3GW of wind generation and 4.7GW of centralized solar generation, representing 11.2% and 4.7% of installed power, respectively. In addition, distributed photovoltaic generation has reached the installed capacity of 6.7GW. Wind and solar generation have certain characteristics that cause difficulties in the operation of a power system. Some of these characteristics are intermittence, inflexibility of dispatch, absence or decrease of rotational inertia, difficulties to contribute to frequency and voltage controls, etc. These characteristics show the need for complex studies of alternative operation strategies to ensure quality and safety of supply, including the reduction of the likelihood of blackouts. Expansion planning studies are also affected by these recent technologies. The definition of an appropriate operational reserve, with flexible plants such as natural gas thermal units, or storage systems based on pumped-storage hydroelectric plants, battery energy storage systems, compressed air, and others, are considered alternatives to overcome the unpredictability and non-controllability of wind and solar sources.
This book describes the results of the research and development project called Impact of the Connections of Large-Scale Wind and Solar Generation in the Brazilian Interconnected Power System executed by Fundação Coppetec (COPPE/UFRJ) in association with Powerconsult for the State Grid Brazil Holding (SGBH). The project was developed in collaboration with CEPRI (China Electric Power Research Institute), aiming to incorporate the Chinese experience in the integration of substantial amounts of renewable energy into the power system. The ONS (Brazilian System Operator) cooperated in the execution of the project by providing information and data as well as expert advice. The EPE (Energy Research Office) participated in the project follow-up meetings as observers.
The main purpose of this project was to study the impacts of the insertion of intermittent sources of generation, particularly wind and solar, on the performance of the Brazilian Interconnected Power System (BIPS), in relation to its operational safety, protection performance, frequency and voltage regulation capacity, energy quality, etc. The study considered the stochastic characteristics of wind and solar production in different analysis windows.
The book is organized in the following chapters:
This work identified a series of operational difficulties arising from the elevated increase in the proportion of wind and solar generation in the installed capacity of the BIPS. However, none of these difficulties alone, or the conjugate action of them, represents an insurmountable impediment to the adoption of these generation technologies as the main option for the BIPS generation expansion.
In parallel with the advances in the technology of wind and solar generation, which has made these sources the best economic and environment option, advances in power electronics and control techniques in general, as well as in storage technologies, has made available resources to deal with the difficulties imposed by the variability of these sources.
The investigations conducted in this project have demonstrated that the BIPS, with minor adjustments in its operating policies, may be able to cope safely with the amount of wind and solar generation forecasted to be installed in the studied horizons and even still work well with a substantial increase in the predicted values. Moreover, some recent technologies just appearing in the technical horizon, like the grid following inverter control systems, new HVDC technologies, etc., are probably able to open even a larger space for the generalized insertion of variable energy sources in the BIPS.
As usually happens in research and development projects, in this one, the results yielded were beyond the forecasted ones. Apart from checking the control and operation viability to support the tested amount of wind and solar generation in the studied scenarios, the project has investigated and proposed innovative solutions to adjacent questions arising from the present and future configurations of the BIPS. The main suggested solutions are: