Situated near Tórshavn, the Faroese capital, the power plant now has sufficient capacity to supply electricity to the almost 52,000 islanders. To that end, SEV relies on an intelligent combination of renewable energy sources, storage solutions and power-plant engines to ensure grid stability.
Sund is the largest of the Faroe’s three engine-driven power plants. Apart from Sund, EV also operates hydroelectric power plants, several wind farms and energy-storage solutions.
From base-load security to intelligent backup
“The role of the Sund power plant has changed over the past few years. Today, it still serves to secure the base load, but it has also become an indispensable backup that compensates for weather-related fluctuations of renewable energies,” said Dr Tilman Tütken, Head of Region Europe, Business Unit Power Plants at MAN Energy Solutions
Responsible for the Sund upgrade was Danish power-plant specialist, Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor A/S (BWSC), while MAN supplied the four engines. These MAN 51/60 engines are intended to run at 80% load and thus to generate district heating with the remaining 20% serving as a variable reserve.
"Our engines can increase their output at any time to compensate for power fluctuations and are throttled back when wind or precipitation conditions improve," added Tütken. "Thanks to this setup, SEV can on the one hand exploit the full potential of renewable energy and, on the other, guarantee maximum grid stability."
Hybrid systems as a vision of the future
The isolated energy system in the Faroe Islands is an impressive example of how all available energy resources can be integrated into an intelligent and innovative microgrid. In Tütken’s view “the future is hybrid,” and the hybrid power solution on the Faroe Islands’ energy system “can act as a model for other projects” in remote regions.