Innovation Landscape Brief: Supergrids, International Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi
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SUPERGRIDS INNOVATION LANDSCAPE BRIEF © IRENA 2019 Unless otherwise stated, material in this publication may be freely used, shared, copied, reproduced, printed and/or stored, provided that appropriate acknowledgement is given of IRENA as the source and copyright holder. Material in this publication that is attributed to third parties may be subject to separate terms of use and restrictions, and appropriate permissions from these third parties may need to be secured before any use of such material. ISBN 978-92-9260-147-8 Citation: IRENA (2019), Innovation landscape brief: Supergrids, International Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report was prepared by the Innovation team at IRENA with text authored by Arina Anisie and Francisco Boshell, with additional contributions and support from Harsh Kanani and Shikhin Mehrotra (KPMG India). Valuable external review was provided by Zhanghua Zheng and Han Jiang (GEIDCO), Norela Constantinescu (ENTSO-E), Mario Ndreko and Wilhelm Winter (TenneT) and Mircea Ardelean (JRC European Commission), along with Martina Lyons, Nina Litman-Roventa and Paul Komor (IRENA). Report available online: www.irena.org/publications For questions or to provide feedback: [email protected] DISCLAIMER This publication and the material herein are provided “as is”. All reasonable precautions have been taken by IRENA to verify the reliability of the material in this publication. However, neither IRENA nor any of its officials, agents, data or other third- party content providers provides a warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, and they accept no responsibility or liability for any consequence of use of the publication or material herein. The information contained herein does not necessarily represent the views of all Members of IRENA. The mention of specific companies or certain projects or products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by IRENA in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The designations employed and the presentation of material herein do not imply the expression of any opinion on the part of IRENA concerning the legal status of any region, country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of frontiers or boundaries. Photographs are from Shutterstock unless otherwise indicated. This document does not represent the official position of IRENA on any particular topic. Rather, it is intended as a contribution to technical discussions on the promotion of renewable energy. www.irena.org BENEFITS 1 Direct current (DC) power lines show substantially lower power losses than alternating current (AC) lines. Power flow is also more controllable in DC systems, allowing more flexible operation. Supergrids can: Transmit renewable energy from resource-rich areas to relatively distant demand centres Boost the flexibility and reliability of local grids Connect two onshore points using offshore HVDC links (bootstraps) 2 KEY ENABLING FACTORS 3 SNAPSHOT Addressing political and regulatory ➜ Xilingol League–Taizhou in China is the world’s challenges highest-voltage (± 800 kV) and highest-capacity (10 GW) DC line in operation Addressing technical challenges related to ➜ One of the world’s longest HVDC lines is being network protection constructed in India, with a length of 1 830 km ➜ In Germany, HelWin1 is a 130 km HVDC line that can transmit up to 576 MW of offshore wind energy from the North Sea to more than 700 000 consumers WHAT ARE SUPERGRIDS? Supergrids are high-capacity power transmission lines using either high-voltage direct current (HVDC, above 500 kV) or ultra-high-voltage direct current (UHVDC, above 800 kV) power lines. SUPERGRIDS By enabling high volumes of electricity to flow acrosslong distances, supergrids enhance cross-border integration and help to connect resource-rich areas3 with renewable energy potential to major electricity demand centres. INNOVATION LANDSCAPE BRIEF ABOUT THIS BRIEF his brief is part of the IRENA project “Innovation to create actual solutions. Solutions to drive the Tlandscape for a renewable-powered future”, uptake of solar and wind power span four broad which maps the relevant innovations, identifies the dimensions of innovation: enabling technologies, synergies and formulates solutions for integrating business models, market design and system high shares of variable renewable energy (VRE) operation. into power systems. Along with the synthesis report, the project The synthesis report, Innovation landscape for a includes a series of briefs, each covering one of renewable-powered future: Solutions to integrate 30 key innovations identified across those four variable renewables (IRENA, 2019a), illustrates the dimensions. The 30 innovations are listed in the need for synergies between different innovations figure below. INNOVATION DIMENSIONS ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES BUSINESS MODELS MARKET DESIGN SYSTEM OPERATION 1 Utility scale batteries 12 Aggregators 17 Increasing time 25 Future role of distribution 2 Behind-the-meter 13 Peer-to-peer electricity granularity in electricity system operators batteries trading markets 26 Co-operation between 14 Energy-as-a-service 18 Increasing space transmission and 3 Electric-vehicle granularity in electricity distribution system smart charging 15 Community-ownership markets operators 4 Renewable models 19 Innovative ancillary power-to-heat 16 Pay-as-you-go models 27 Advanced forecasting services 5 Renewable of variable renewable 20 Re-designing capacity power-to-hydrogen power generation markets 28 Innovative operation 6 Internet of Things 21 Regional markets of pumped hydropower 7 Artificial intelligence 22 storage and big data 23 Market integration 8 Blockchain 29 Virtual power lines of distributed energy 30 Dynamic line rating 9 Renewable mini-grids resources 10 Supergrids 24 Net billing schemes 11 Flexibility in conventional power plants 4 SUPERGRIDS This brief examines supergrids, an emerging enabling technology that can be used to transport The brief is structured as follows: electricity from VRE sources over long distances. Direct current (DC) supergrids have the potential I Description to transmit electricity over longer distances and with lower losses than alternating current (AC) II Contribution to power sector transformation systems. Coupling renewable energy generation and power load centres across long distances with III Key factors to enable deployment supergrids enables remotely located renewable generation to be integrated in the system, IV Current status and examples of ongoing bringing it closer to the demand more efficiently. initiatives V Implementation requirements: Checklist 5 INNOVATION LANDSCAPE BRIEF I. DESCRIPTION reas rich in renewable resources, with high lines, between 30% and 40% higher in comparison Asolar irradiation levels or wind speeds, are with DC technology (Siemens, n.d.). Additionally, frequently remote from major electricity demand HVDC systems have greater controllability than AC centres, such as cities or industrial hubs. Similarly, grids, allowing power flow control and increased geographies with high solar irradiation, such as flexibility in system operation. those in African deserts, may be optimal for deploying solar power generation technologies, AC grids have prevailed due to AC transformers’ but may not have high energy demand locally. ability to change the voltage level. Until recently Therefore, great potential exists to increase the DC lines could only be used for point-to- share of renewables in power consumption by point transmission and did not easily form the transporting VRE from remote but resource-rich integrated grid networks that exist today. Over locations to demand centres through supergrids. the past few years equipment manufacturers have conducted intensive research and development, A supergrid is a large transmission network into DC breakers and products, making a that makes it possible to trade high volumes of meshed DC grid now feasible. One such activity electricity across great distances. Supergrids is the ongoing EU project PROMOTioN, which are high-voltage DC (HVDC) transmission power seeks to address challenges to the development lines (with rated voltage greater than or equal of meshed HVDC offshore transmission grids to 500 kilovolts [kV]) or ultra-high-voltage DC (PROMOTioN, 2018). (UHVDC) power lines (greater than or equal to 800 kV). DC technology is more promising Supergrid networks are typically built for supergrids than AC technology for several independent of the conventional AC grid and reasons. The transmission of power over long can interact with the existing AC grid at a few distances using AC technology is challenging, or multiple nodes. Figure 1 depicts the common as AC systems require reactive power support. configurations/topologies for HVDC/UHVDC Moreover, line losses are significantly higher for AC grids and conventional AC grids. 6 SUPERGRIDS Figure 1: Common configurations of supergrids and AC grids SINGLE DC LINE AND MESHED DC GRID AND AC TERMINALS MULTI-TERMINAL ACDC MULTI-TERMINAL ACDC AND INDEPENDENT INTERCONNECTION INTERCONNECTION DC GRID DC Grid DC Grid DC Grid AC Grid AC Grid AC Grid Source: Ahmed et al., 2011 As Figure 1 depicts, the HVDC/UHVDC grid is The South West link in Sweden is based on this built independently of the conventional AC grid setup (Ahmed et al., 2011; SVK, n.d.). and is connected to the AC grid at multiple points along the AC network. The first schematic The second schematic depicts a meshed DC grid depicts