VGB POWERTECH 7 (2021) - International Journal for Generation and Storage of Electricity and Heat

VGB PowerTech 7 l 2021
Editorial
Look at the overall system: Develop and
expand a modern energy infrastructure
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
The fact that we do not hold
8 January 2021 in Europe as
a day with bad memories is
certainly due, among other
things, to the fact that there
is still sufficient controllable,
flexible power generation
capacity available, as well as
to targeted measures at the
level of grid operation.
What had happened? On
8 January 2021, at around
14:05 noon, Europe was on
the verge of a blackout.
In a substation in Croatia, an overcurrent circuit breaker
on the 400 kV high-voltage level tripped. As a result, quasicascade-like
further failures of both power lines and substations
in south-eastern Europe led to a crisis-like development
of the operating condition in the entire European
interconnected power grid. Consequently, the grid was
automatically separated into a south-eastern and a northwestern
grid section. Since before this separation the geographical
distribution of electricity generation was uneven
- electricity was transported from east to west - this led to
a frequency increase to 50.6 Hz in the eastern part and a
frequency decrease to 49.74 Hz in the western part. One
and two blackouts due to these critical deviations from the
normal grid frequency of exactly 50 Hz could be avoided.
In the north-western sub-grid with “missing generation”,
large power plants of all generation types compensated for
the generation deficit after the first interception by the flywheels
of the rotating machine sets with additional rapid
power increase. In addition, contracted loads in the form of
industrial consumers with a total capacity of 1.7 GW could
be taken off the grid, especially in France and Italy. In the
south-eastern part, the grid situation was eased by quickly
shutting down generation capacities and switching from
generation to pumping operation at hydropower plants.
Both the triggering event and the consequences and countermeasures
have been analysed and documented in detail
in the meantime. ENTSO-E, the association of European
grid and transmission system operators, has published detailed
documents on this subject, which are available on the
website, www.entsoe.eu.
In its white paper “Energy is us – Being Part of the Future
Energy System “*, VGB PowerTech refers to eight strategic
fields of action that are coupled to achieve a sustainable,
environmentally friendly, secure and economic energy supply.
Expanding renewables, strengthening flexibility in the
energy system and ensuring security of supply are three key
topics in the light of 8 January 2021.
The aspect of “Develop and expand of a modern energy infrastructure”
should be taken up here as another:
“In addition to power grids, a modern energy infrastructure
also includes digital infrastructure, various systems and actors
– e.g. in the form of virtual power plants – seamlessly
interacting together in a network. The connection of neighboring
transmission networks through interconnections
contributes significantly to system flexibility and security of
supply. The European Union has therefore set itself the goal
of increasing the share of interconnections to 15 percent by
2030. This means that every EU member country should be
able to transfer 15 percent of its electricity capacity to its
neighboring countries.
In addition to network and IT infrastructure, the placement
of the systems also plays an important role. The expansion
of plants dedicated to renewable energies should go hand
in hand with the expansion of the power grid and take into
account the geographical distribution of the existing generation
and load. Another example is plants dedicated to indirect
sector coupling, which should be placed as close as possible
to renewable energy plants and at junctions between
electricity and gas networks.”
It is therefore important to think holistically, multidimensionally,
when it comes to electricity supply - secure, environmentally
friendly, sustainable and competitive. Generation,
distribution and consumption are more closely interlinked
than in any other sector of our lives, and a holistic view is
required for the implementation of development potential,
including that of technology, which ultimately creates this
implementation in the first place.
Dipl.-Ing. Christopher Weßelmann
Editor in Chief
VGB PowerTech
Essen, Germany
* www.vgb.org/en/leitbild_2019.html
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