Power to the max

Matt Roberts, Director of Renewable Projects, Emerson, USA,

outlines the importance of energy storage within the renewable energy industry, highlighting the ways in which energy management can be made more efficient in order to maximise performance and profitability.

he energy landscape is changing as governments and businesses alike work toward ambitious sustainability goals, including net zero. A December 2021 International Energy Agency (IEA) report titled Renewables 2021: Analysis and Forecast to 2026 bears this out, predicting renewables will comprise approximately 95% of the increase in global power capacity through 2026.1

But producing energy only when the sun shines, the water flows, and the wind blows is simply not enough. The world’s increasing reliance on renewables comes with new challenges inherent when working with intermittent power sources, bringing into sharp focus the need for energy storage solutions, such as green hydrogen and utility scale lithium-ion batteries, that can turn variable sources into reliable, dispatchable generation. Consider this:

F Adding battery energy storage to wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) allows variable clean energy to be utilised during off-hours, providing greater value.

F Adding battery energy storage to run-of-the-river hydropower plants creates ‘virtual reservoirs’ that can act like conventional hydropower plants to provide baseload stability, or even a microgrid that supports local sustainability and power needs during blackouts. F Short- and long-duration storage of green hydrogen derived from purely renewable sources enables dispatch of the gas when required to generate clean electricity from hydrogen-fuelled turbines.

BloombergNEF predicts that the global energy storage market is set to hit 1 TWh by 2030, with the US and China leading with over half of the global installations by the end of this decade.2 Energy storage installations around the world will reach a cumulative 358 GW/1028 GWh by the end of 2030, more than 20 times larger than what was online by the end of 2020.

The projected growth of the global hydrogen energy storage market is just as staggering, reaching US$119.2 billion by 2027 according to the latest MarketsandMarkets research report.3 Commercialisation of power-to-gas technologies is the next big thing, adding flexibility to energy systems and allowing efficient integration of unstable renewables in the energy markets.

With so much at stake, from standalone energy storage systems to hybrid applications that include solar, wind, hydropower, and green hydrogen, green energy power producers are looking for ways to better manage storage operations. The foundation for better management lies in a solution that centralises and integrates critical information to provide full operational visibility across all assets, thereby making it possible to achieve increased performance, improved efficiency, and reduced costs.

Maximising performance and profitability

The gathering, contextualising, and secure delivery of real-time and historical asset data to key stakeholders provides accurate, actionable intelligence that enables better decision-making and higher revenues.

A closer look at battery energy storage reveals the many ways that energy management software and technologies can contribute to maximising performance and profitability.

F Energy arbitrage: Automatically scheduling the battery energy storage system (BESS) to charge during low-cost periods and discharge at high-price times optimises energy arbitrage and maximises revenue.

F Load-levelling: Efficiently co-ordinating the dispatch of battery-stored energy reduces the load on peak-generating sources by directing the battery management system to charge and store power during periods of excess generation, and discharge or deliver the power during periods of excess demand.

F Grid stability: Using battery storage for grid services such as frequency response and voltage regulation contributes to grid stability, as it makes it possible to quickly respond to short-term imbalances in supply and demand using active (frequency) or reactive (voltage) control.

F Reserves: Deploying emission-free battery storage as a form of spinning, non-spinning, or supplemental reserves makes it possible to maintain reliable power system operations. Close monitoring of the state-of-charge confirms dispatch readiness to quickly deliver stored power in response to contingency events, such as an outage, or during periods of high demand.

F Black start/back-up power: Using on-site battery energy enables power generators to avoid fuel costs and emissions from conventional black-start generators. Furthermore, on-site battery energy makes it possible to quickly energise generating assets or use stored power to avoid costly disruptions and continue normal operations after a system-wide failure or blackout.

Figure 1. A single platform integrates many data sources across an entire renewable portfolio, enabling efficient asset management that optimises the operational dispatch of generation and storage capacity.

Figure 2. Battery energy management systems benefit multiple stakeholders by maximising performance and profitability.

Figure 3. Applying a defense-in-depth approach to cybersecurity protects energy storage and renewable generation infrastructure without disrupting operations.

Single platform, multiple benefits

Efficient management of generating and storage assets, each with different software and control systems servicing a variety of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) equipment, is challenging. A solution lies in adopting a single OEM-independent comprehensive digital foundation with the ability to integrate many data sources into one system.

The use of one platform eliminates data silos, enabling efficient asset management that optimises the operational dispatch of generation and storage capacity to meet load across bulk power systems. This platform eliminates complexity and risk by serving as an integrated source for capturing and placing into context the massive amounts of data generated from embedded control and monitoring applications or third-party software and systems. This translates into greater visibility through a single, unified view of all operations that reduce costs while optimising the financial and energy performance across an entire renewable portfolio. Furthermore, this approach provides a pathway to easily and cost-effectively add innovative software for future applications such as remote operations or data analytics.

Organisations, such as Burns & McDonnell, understand the benefits of an integrated digital foundation. The company recently completed the construction of three lithium-ion BESS to provide support for the Texas, the US, power grid. Emerson’s automation technology was selected to monitor and control the three energy storage projects, which deliver 60 MWh of capacity. According to a news release issued by Burns & McDonnell, the software

increases visibility into battery operations and simplifies system management, allowing the owner/operator to view, optimise, and modify the controls even years after commissioning if system requirements change.4

Additionally, Mitsubishi Power America’s Advanced Clean Energy Storage hub will leverage an integrated digital automation stack to ensure safe and reliable generation, storage, and transmittal of green energy.5 The first-of-its-kind facility will use a common control and safety platform for the end-to-end process of producing green hydrogen, storing it in salt caverns and dispatching the fuel when needed to the nearby 840 MW Intermountain Power Project (IPP Renewed).

There are a number of digital solutions using advanced software and technologies that enable seamless visualisation and actionable insights.

Predictive analytics is integral to realising the promise of efficient and enlightened energy management, as it enables immediate resolution of impending process or equipment anomalies to avoid downtime or catastrophic damage, and enhances operator situational awareness and decision making. Expert rules, complex modelling, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning work together to alert and guide operators to take immediate, specific action, dispatch maintenance personnel with the correct equipment for replacement, or direct the control system to automatically make corrective changes.

Remote, real-time access to operations is more critical than ever with the increase of geographically dispersed and often unmanned renewable and distributed energy resources. With remote capabilities, power generators can securely access data remotely, gain faster and more precise responses to critical issues, and proactively address maintenance issues to minimise costs and improve the safety of their teams.

And of course, no discussion about power generation would be complete without mentioning cybersecurity. For energy management systems, it is vital to use a depth-in-defence approach to cybersecurity that protects critical infrastructure without disrupting the controlled processes.

Conclusion

The growing integration of renewables with traditional energy sources is reinventing the power business model and infrastructure. As utilities continue diversifying their energy portfolios, they are looking to energy storage systems to turn intermittent energy into reliable, dispatchable power. Using automation software that provides full operational visibility across all assets enables utilities to stay competitive, keep the public safe, and maintain grid stability.

References

1. ‘Renewables 2021: Analysis and forecasts to 2026,’ International Energy Agency, (December 2021). 2. ‘Global Energy Storage Market Set to Hit One Terawatt-Hour by 2030,’

BloombergNEF, (November 2021). 3. ‘Hydrogen Energy Storage Market by State (Gas, Liquid, Solid), Technology (Compression, Liquefaction, Material Based), Application (Stationary

Power, Transportation), End User (Electric Utilities, Industrial, Commercial),

Region – Global Forecast to 2027,’ MarketsandMarkets, (June 2022). 4. ‘Burns & McDonnell Completes Construction of Three West Texas Energy Storage

Projects Delivering 60 MWh of Capacity,’ Burns & McDonnell, (January 2022). 5. ‘Mitsubishi Power Selects Emerson Software and Technologies for Advanced

Clean Energy Storage Hydrogen Hub,’ Emerson, (July 2022).

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