Electrical Power Systems of the Future - EE4545 - Group 12: Viviana Kleine (5504953), Nils Lurie

(5845351) & Pieter Gommers (4923189).

Question 1
To assess whether an area will have a reliable electricity supply in the 2035 scenario both grid structures,
peak loads and peak generation capacities must be considered.

Zone 1 Currently, zone 1 has a peak load of 2500 [MW], which will decrease to 2000 [MW] in 2035. It
has a looped grid structure which provides different paths for power connecting the residential area to its
industrial area. In 2035 it is possible to have 560 offshore wind turbines installed, each having a potential
capacity of 2.5 [MW] per turbine, summing to a total potential wind power capacity of 1400 [MW]. The
second renewable source of energy in zone 1 is the biomass plant which has a capacity of 200 [MW]. This
means that in the best case - a lot of wind present - the total renewable power is 1600 [MW], which is
not enough for the peak load, hence, the coal plant needs to make up for the rest of the power. In the
case that there is no wind present and zone 1 is operating at full load, even the coal plant’s capacity of
1700 [MW] together with the biomass is not enough to sustain the area. Thus, zone 1 needs additional
infrastructure in order to be completely reliable throughout the year.

Zone 2 In the base case, zone 2 has a peak load of 98 [MW] while having a radial grid. The peak load
increases to 800 [MW] in 2035. In contrast to this increase in load, the coal power plant capacity decreases
from 160 [MW] to 80 [MW]. To make up for this decrease in generation the installed solar potential will
be 1200 [MW], combined with a pumped hydro capacity of 600 MW. This scenario is not suited for a
reliable electricity supply for zone 2. Firstly, both of the renewable generation types are in the north
part of the island, with the pumped hydro even being on an island offshore, while the residential zone is
in the south. A radial connection is in that case insufficient to ensure reliable operation, because a single
contingency, being a fault or a damaged transmission line, leads to the demand area being completely
disconnected from the generation area. Secondly, the solar power potential is only available during the
day and will generate 0 [MW] of power during the night. Besides, even though the island is tropical,
there still exist seasonal changes in the solar power output, although, two-thirds of the output would still
be enough to power zone 2. It is unlikely that the peak load of zone 2 would be during the night, but if
so, the pumped hydro (600 [MW]) together with the coal plant (80 [MW]) is not enough to sustain zone
2. Thus, zone 2 also needs additional infrastructure in order to be completely reliable throughout the
year.

Question 2
If there is no sun, there is wind, and if there is no wind, there is sun. Naturally, it can not be said that
the outputs of these two renewable energy sources are either on or off but inverted from each other, but
generally, they complement each other. This is why it is a good idea to interconnect zone 1 and zone
2. In this case, we can look at the island as a whole, where the peak load is 2800 [MW], the total coal
plant capacity is 1780 [MW] and all renewables are as before. The interconnections should be done so
that the island obtains a meshed grid which greatly improves reliability by having multiple paths for
power from and to all generation and demand areas on the island. The voltage level of this meshed
grid should be higher than 220 [kV], i.e. 400 [kV], so that the transport capacity is adequate for all
cases, also considering potential outages. In the rare case where the island is operating at full load and
neither sun nor wind is available, there would be a shortage of power of 220 [MW], under the assumption
that pumped hydro, biomass and coal operate at full capacity. A solution to this would be to build an
additional (conventional) power plant with a capacity of at least 220 [MW], however, additional adequacy
studies must be performed to see if this is actually necessary.
A better solution would be to mitigate load power in this case. By making use of smart industrial
grids, industries can shift their high-power operations to later moments when adequate renewable energy
is available. This process can be led by markets where the energy coming from coal is highly expensive
compared to the energy coming from renewables. The same principle can be used in residential areas

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too, e.g. heat pumps can operate at low load times and EVs can charge at night. This does mean that
their controllers must be smart and potentially operated by aggregators.
In the case of smart EV chargers, a third solution appears as vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology. When
EVs are connected to the grid they could be discharged into the grid providing power when demand is
high. Because the island already has a form of energy storage (pumped hydro), a conventional dedicated
battery system on grid level would be redundant for most of the year, especially given its price tag. A
more low-cost and more sustainable solution for energy storage on the island could be to use one of the
abandoned mines as a second pumped hydro storage system. Water can be pumped into the mines and
pressurized that way. When the pressure is released the water flows through a turbine generating power.

Question 3
The type of storage plant in terms of storage cycle time for the pumped hydro storage plant depends
on the rest of the grid. Two cases are discussed, zone 2 separately and zone 1 & 2 interconnected. The
pumped hydro capacity is 600 [MW] and its storage capacity is 11 [GWh].

Zone 2 separately When zone 2 is regarded as its own area there is a solar potential of 1200 [MW],
only available during the day, complemented by a coal plant of only 80 [MW]. Because the valley load in
zone 2 is 500 [MW], an energy source with a capacity of at least 420 [MW] is necessary which must be
the pumped hydro storage to accommodate during the night. Because of this, it must be a daily storage
cycled plant which gets filled during the day with the excess solar power and emptied at night.

Zones 1 & 2 interconnected When both zones are interconnected, the lack of solar power at night
can be accommodated by wind and biomass power. This means that the pumped hydro storage should
not be used as a daily cycled plant. Under the assumption that there is a noticeable seasonal variation
in either solar or wind power, the hydro storage plant should be used as a yearly cycled storage plant. If
this assumption is not right due to the tropical island having a constant climate, the hydro storage plant
should be used as a weekly cycled storage plant to absorb random changes in renewable power production
throughout the year. Both solutions have as a goal to avoid the coal plant as much as possible. This is
most likely not fully possible, as the storage capacity of the pumped hydro is only 11 [GWh], whereas
on average the daily energy demand is 12+4.8
365 · 1000 = 46[GWh], although together with the solutions
discussed in Question 2, this solution comes a long way.

Question 4
The answer to the question of how energy storage systems (ESS) can be used to have a positive impact on
power system issues depends on the type of storage and the situation altogether, as discussed in previous
sections. Grid congestion can be solved by locally storing power in case of excessive local generation, or
by consuming stored power in case of high demand, however, centralised ESS can not influence congestion
much at locations in the grid that are further away.
ESS could be used to temporarily feed a part of, for instance, a radial distribution network. If there
is a transformer outage in a neighbourhood with no backup transformer, V2G solutions could provide
power for the distribution network for some time. A fully charged EV can provide a week’s worth of
power for an average household. If all households in this distribution network own an adequately charged
EV connected to this network, DSO engineers would have a few days time to repair the transformer
without losing power to the distribution network, greatly increasing reliability. Home batteries or shared
communal batteries would also work similarly. However, this is under the assumption that grid-forming
technology on a small scale is possible and that the net codes allow for this technology to work.
ESS is especially useful for the integration of sustainable energy sources due to its ability to absorb
energy that is very variable by nature. This could be done to absorb the power output that is different
every minute so that the system frequency can be maintained more easily. Additionally, daily or even
seasonal changes in energy output can be solved by applying ESS, as discussed in Question 3.
Lastly, ESS can be used to provide ancillary services too. With adequate control, contemporary
converters are able to inject reactive power in order to maintain local voltage levels. Frequency levels

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can be kept at 50 [Hz] by supplying or absorbing active power. Even stability issues can be mitigated by
ESS if its controls are sophisticated enough.

Question 5
There are two parameters to consider when analysing whether it would be possible to close half of the
coal plants - capacity and annual energy. The impact of the closure is analysed for each of the zones
separately.

Zone 1 The annual energy demand in zone 1 is predicted to be 12 [TWh]. Part of this demand could
be covered by offshore wind farms, namely, 5.6 [TWh]. Another part of the demand could be covered by
biomass power, which has an annual potential energy of 1 [TWh]. This leaves 5.4 [TWh], which has to
be covered by the coal plant, which is feasible since the maximum annual potential energy of the coal
plants would be 7.5 [TWh] if half of the coal plants were closed.
The load in zone 1 in 2035 is predicted to vary between 1000 [MW] and 2000 [MW]. The maximum
power of the wind farm can be calculated as the number of turbines multiplied by the power of a single
turbine, which is equal to 560 · 2.5 = 1400M W . However, due to the unpredictability of the weather, the
actual power would differ from the rated power of the wind farm. Therefore, it would have to be coupled
with the hydro pump storage, if it is desired to maximise the yield. Otherwise, there would often be a
mismatch between the demand and the generation. The difference would have to be supplied by the coal
and biomass plants. Given that the maximum power of the coal plants would be 1700 [MW], it should
be feasible to realize this system.

Zone 2 A similar analysis is done for the zone 2. The predicted annual energy demand is 4.8 [TWh].
It is predicted that solar power could potentially generate 3.6 [TWh]. This means that the rest would
have to be supplied by the coal plants, meaning that the coal power in the zone 2 would have to be
expanded instead of being reduced. However, it was shown in the previous section that only 5.4 [TWh]
out of possible 7.6[TWh] of coal power are needed for zone 1, therefore, the remaining coal power could
be used for zone 2. In that way the climate goals would still be achieved. Either the coal power in zone
2 has to be expanded or it could be delivered via a connection from zone 1.
The rated power of the potential solar plant is 1200 [MW], which should in theory be sufficient in
most days to supply the demand range of 500 [MW] to 800 [MW] of demand. However, similarly as
before a hydro pump storage would be necessary to compensate for the weather. As mentioned before,
solar power alone would not be enough to generate the energy at all times.
Although it was concluded that the closure of half of the coal plants should theoretically be feasible
due to the stochastic nature of wind and sun, there could be scenarios when due to the weather there is
not enough power to supply all the demand. In such a case it might be necessary to curtail some of the
loads.

Question 6
If the construction of the 600[MW] pump hydro plant was delayed, it would have the following impact:

Zone 1: The peak load for zone 1 for the 2035 scenario is 2000[MW]. While there is still a large coal
plant available (1700[MW]), the margin has to be covered by the new renewable sources. While there are
plans for an offshore wind park in zone one, which could offer up to 1400[MW] in potential, this power
is highly volatile. Therefore, it is very likely that during peak demand with low wind, power needs to be
imported from zone 2. A delay in the construction of the pump hydro power plant will affect the amount
of energy zone 2 can export and thus influence the security of supply in zone 1.

Zone 2: The peak load in zone 2 is 800[MW]. However, unlike zone 1, zone 2 only has a very small coal
power plant, with a capacity of merely 80[MW]. In order to cover the peak demand, the power has to
be supplied by the biomass plant (200[MW]) and the solar power plants (potentially 1200[MW]). While
solar, like wind, is fluctuating a lot, biomass is a more stable energy source as biomass can more easily

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be stored and used when needed. The absence of the 600[MW] pump hydro power plant could lead to
generation shortage during peak demand if it coincides with a cloudy day and there is not enough solar
power available. This problem is more severe in zone 2 than in zone 1, as the power supply in zone 2
depends on solar power, which is sure to not produce any power at night.

Question 7
In the base case, zone 1 exceeds 100 [MW] (load fluctuation between 1500 and 2000 [MW] ) while zone
2 does not exceed it (load fluctuations between 55 and 98 [MW]). Therefore, the N-1 security criterion
would be necessary only for zone 2. In the 2035 scenario, both zones exceed 100 [MW], therefore, the
N-1 criterion would have to be implemented in both zones (zone 1 has a peak load of 2000 [MW] while
zone 2 has a peak load of 800 [MW]).

Question 8
There are multiple aspects to consider when choosing the connections of the wind farm and hydropower
plant:

Distance: In general, the break-even distance of AC vs. DC transmission is around 100[km] for offshore
applications [1]. Once the distance exceeds this value, it is more economically feasible to use DC trans-
mission. The distance from the wind farm to the shore is 55[km] while the distance from the shore to the
hydropower plant is 150[km].

Capacity: The potential of the windfarm 1400[MW] and the capacity of the pump hydro power plant
is 600[MW]. To increase transmission capacity, the voltage level can be increased. However, there is a
limit for AC transmission as discussed in the following paragraph. For DC transmission there are already
multiple offshore wind connectors successfully installed, for example, DolWin2 with a power rating of
916MW [1].

Voltage-reactive power: If the voltage level is increased in AC transmission, so is reactive power by

Available technologies: Both AC and DC transmission are mature technologies. For DC transmission
there are multiple DC/AC converters available (CSC and VSC) as well as different cable technologies
(e.g. XLPE for 320-525kV).

While AC transmission has the advantage of lower station costs, the costs at high voltage levels, which are
needed to ensure a certain power transport capacity, are very high (due to reactive power compensation)
and are proportional to the transmission length. In turn, DC transmission has very high converter
costs, but the distance-depending costs are lower as the entire capacity can be used for active power
transmission. Therefore, the proposed solution for the wind farm would be AC at 155[kV] even though
the wind farm requires a lot of capacity because the distance to shore is significantly smaller. For the
hydropower plant, a DC connection at 320[kV] should be used due to the larger distance to shore.

Question 9
Under the assumption that all solar panels are facing south and therefore the assumption that 1.5m2
produce 250Wp holds, it would require 7.2km2 . The calculation is shown in equation 1.

1200[M W ]
Asolar = · 1.5[m2 ] = 7.2[km2 ] (1)
250[Wp ]
In reality, a bigger size might be required as the assumptions made are very restrictive.

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Question 10
In order to deal with the increased amounts of reactive power, reactive power compensators could be
installed. Examples of such devices (either passive compensation or active) are depicted by a company
called ENSPEC[2]. Another example could be a synchronous compensator, which is essentially a syn-
chronous motor without a mechanical load, which either consumes or generates reactive power.
It might also be necessary to implement the concept of a smart grid to operate the grid within the
voltage limits. This could, for example, include charging of EVs in a way that supports the grid (the
charging responds to the fluctuations in the grid, which could mean charging over a longer time interval).
Some of these approaches could also be implemented through ancillary services where there are specific
actors cooperating with the TSO (through market mechanism) to inject or absorb the reactive power
depending on the grid status.

References
[1] ABB, HVDC technology for offshore wind is maturing, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://new.abb.
com/news/detail/8270/hvdc-technology-for-offshore-wind-is-maturing.
[2] Enspec, Reactive Compensation, 2023. [Online]. Available: https : / / www . enspecpower . com /
reactive-compensation/.