Siemens has opened a dynamic grid centre designed to better manage the growing complexity of power transmission systems in Germany.
Siemens said the pilot installation in Ilmenau was the first of its kind in the world and that such systems would be the answer to the growing problem of managing rapidly changing conditions on the world’s power networks.
Grid requirements have already changed enormously – large nuclear power plants and coal fired power plants are being taken off the grid and the new focal points for power generation in Europe are large scale wind farms in the North Sea. In addition, a distributed and fluctuating power supply is fed in at all voltage levels from a large number of wind turbines and solar systems.
The new system has been designed to ensure that the electrical power is delivered where it's needed without detours – even under the aggravated conditions of increasingly dynamic grids, longer transmission paths, and less-than-precise forecasting for renewable energy sources.
Dr Rainer Krebs, Head of the Technical Department for Protection and Control System Studies at Siemens, said: “A priority objective was to develop what we might call an autopilot for the transmission network.
“Like an aircraft, the autopilot has two core functions: first, to control the system automatically so that the ‘flight’ or grid operation remains as calm and stable as possible at all times. Its second function is to detect obstacles or faults at an early stage so that they can be circumvented or avoided.”
The research consortium consists of Siemens, the universities of Magdeburg, Ilmenau, and Bochum, and the Fraunhofer Institutes in Magdeburg and Ilmenau. Complex energy systems are being modelled in a real-time simulation being conducted in Ilmenau, with anticipated future operating conditions being analysed.
Today control centres already have to intervene in the grid with increasing frequency to keep voltages, currents, and grid frequency within the permissible limits. Seimens said the work in progress in Magdeburg and Ilmenau could very soon result in dynamic control centres replacing conventional control centres in the grid as a long-term solution to the problem of increasing grid dynamics.