sources we will require to improve the visibility and control of these assets by installing at
their
premise’s
smart
communication
controllers. These controllers will be the building block of the virtual power plant platform, a platform that will aggregate several dispersed DER sources across its control area to emulate the power and energy capacity of one large power plant. This platform will be operated by a Figure 2 Hourly and yearly dispatch view of Lebanon power system: 24 TWh electricity demand, 3.4 GW peak load, 1.8 GW EDL power supply, EDL national supply 16 TWh, solar 5 TWh, diesel generator 2 TWh
energy that could not be integrated due to an excess in-feed at certain hours of the day. These instances happen when EDL generators reach their ramp down limit to avoid shutdown and start-up costs. On the right part of figure 2, we observe the annual dispatch of the power system. In the same energy context of today i.e electricity demand of 23 TWh, peak demand of 3.4 GW, EDL generation of 16 TWh, diesel generators 7 TWh, it would be possible to integrate 80% of the generated electricity of 4 GW of solar PV plants and reduce diesel generation by 70%. Compared to the BAU solution, Lebanon would save 7.3 million tons of CO2e. Valued at today CO2 price of 25 €/ton in the European market, this could mean potential climate financing opportunity of 180-220 million USD with very low interest rates.% . of the solar PV generation would need to be curtailed, equivalent to 1 TWh. This 1 TWh is the driver of the business case to introduce battery storage systems in Lebanon. Figure 3 illustrates the results of a dispatch simulation that maximizes renewable energy integration and includes the deployment of distributed battery storage systems that cumulates to 1.8 GW and 4 GWh of reservoir capacity.
new entity in Lebanon the Virtual Power Plant Operator who will be responsible to manage the DERs contracts and ensure they balance their region with respect to EDL flexibility needs. The VPP operator will centralize all the DER-related business processes by providing the following: Bi-directional communication between the control center and aggregated DERs By receiving active power measurements and forecasts from the aggregators and sending active power targets towards the DERs. Active power remote control By collecting data from different sources: first, day-ahead generation forecasts submitted by the VPP aggregators. Second, day ahead forecasts of EDL power plants and active power forecasts on the feeders. Then, this collected data will be combined and processed to generate VPP generation plans that will be translated into active power setpoints sent to the aggregators. Energy accounting and billing By using the active power measurement, VPP platform will be providing accurate energy accounting and billing as per the contractual pricing with aggregators. Interoperability with EDL Energy Management System The VPP platform will be providing active Power forecasts of VPPs to EDL as an input to their N-1 network analysis. Moreover, in the future, an installed Automatic Generation Controller in the control center can feed the VPP platform with real-time power signals that will be transferred to the aggregator. User interface The EDL will be using the user interface to visualize actual VPP
Figure 3 Hourly and yearly dispatch view of Lebanon power system: 24 TWh electricity demand, 3.4 GW peak load, 1.8 GW EDL power supply, EDL national supply 16 TWh, solar 6 TWh, diesel generator 1 TWh, battery energy storage 1 TWh
We observe on the left part of figure 3 how batteries are dispatched (dark
power generation, available VPP power reserves, export invoices and energy accounting reports. These business processes are illustrated in figure 4.
green) after being charged (purple curve) when there is an excess of solar electricity in the grid. The diesel generation (blue curve) are dispatched as least measure when the batteries are fully discharged in one cycle. On the right part of figure 3, we observe the impact of introducing batteries on the yearly dispatch of diesel generators. The charge/discharge cycles of batteries (reddotted line) have reduced the need of diesel generators. Under such scenario, diesel generation electricity will be reduced by 85% and Lebanon will integrate fully the 4 GW of solar PV. Lebanon would save an additional 0.7 million tons of CO2 by introducing batteries. Valued at today CO2 price of 25 €/ton in the European market, this could mean potential financing opportunity of 15-25 million USD going as additional revenues to batteries.
Figure 4 Integrating Distributed Energy Resources in Lebanon: The Virtual Power Plant framework
2. Digitalization: The center of our plan is to push the integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) in the national control system of EDL.
Creating such platform will be a cornerstone in reforming our power
These DERs will consist in the short term of the best-in class distributed
sector not to only integrate the 4 GW of Solar PV we have planned
generators existing, the new distributed PV plants that will come online
but to integrate in all future DERs in the systems, be it small scale or
aggressively and new distributed battery energy storage systems we expect to
large scale solar and wind plants, run of river hydro, batteries,
penetrate the market when there will be excess solar electricity in Lebanon (see
electric vehicles, flexible industrial or commercial loads, fuel cells,
figure 3 above). To effectively integrate Distributed Energy Resources (DER)
heat pumps etc.
