Base load power plant

About: Base load power plant is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 6121 publications have been published within this topic receiving 96788 citations.

Power control unit for automatic control of power consumption in a lighting load

Abstract: The present invention is a power control unit and method of controlling power particularly for lighting loads such as incandescent lamps and fluorescent lamps. The power control unit is located between the power source and the load, typically between a circuit breaker and the lamps in a single circuit. The power control unit functions to reduce the voltage delivered to the load and thereby to reduce the power consumed by the load. Reductions in power up to 10% or more are possible without any significant loss in lighting usefulness. Savings of up to 40% or more are possible when significant reductions in lighting output are acceptable.

Wind integration: experience, issues, and challenges

Abstract: The challenge of wind integration is to make best use of the variable and uncertain power source while maintaining the continuous balance between consumption and generation and high level of reliability in the power system. There is already experience of operating power systems with large amounts of wind power and integration studies give estimates on wind power impacts. Power systems are equipped to handle variability and uncertainty that comes from the electricity consumption, the load. Short-term wind forecasting is required to manage large amounts of wind power. The main impacts of wind integration are investments in grid infrastructure and efficiency losses in power plants when following the increased variations and uncertainty in the power system. Wind power will lower emissions while replacing energy produced by fossil fuels and can also replace some power plant capacity. However, wind's lower capacity value compared to conventional power plants is one integration impact of wind power, meaning higher total installed capacity in power systems with high wind penetration. Managing options for wind integration impacts includes proper wind power plant grid-connection rules, increasing transmission capacity and increasing flexibility that is available from generation plants and demand side. Further development of models and tools is required to study how entire power systems can be operated during the hours and days of very high penetration levels covering 60–80% of load.

Coordination of reactive power in grid-connected wind farms for voltage stability enhancement

Abstract: This paper studies the feasibility of utilizing the reactive power of grid-connected variable-speed wind generators to enhance the steady-state voltage stability margin of the system. Allowing wind generators to work at maximum reactive power limit may cause the system to operate near the steady-state stability limit, which is undesirable. This necessitates proper coordination of reactive power output of wind generators with other reactive power controllers in the grid. This paper presents a trust region framework for coordinating reactive output of wind generators with other reactive sources for voltage stability enhancement. Case studies on 418-bus equivalent system of Indian southern grid indicates the effectiveness of proposed methodology in enhancing the steady-state voltage stability margin.

Optimal sizing for a hybrid power system with wind/energy storage based in stochastic environment

Abstract: For isolated power networks supplied by intermittent energy sources, several doubts have emerged regarding the impact of the uncertainties on the networks reliability. This paper performs optimal sizing for a hybrid power system with wind/energy storage sources based on stochastic modeling of historical wind speed and load demand. The autoregressive moving average is used to stochastically model the uncertainty of the load demand/wind speed and, the sequential Monte Carlo simulation is performed to chronologically sample the system states. The contribution of the paper can be summarized as follows: (1) an objective function based on self-adapted evolutionary strategy in combination with the Fischer–Burmeister algorithm is proposed to minimize the one-time investment and annual operational costs of the wind/energy storage sources; and (2) the effect of the cycle efficiency and charging/discharging rate of different energy storage units on the system cost is investigated under different reliability and load shifting levels. The computational performance of the proposed optimization solver is proven in order to obtain the minimum possible investment cost. The presented case studies in this paper provide the decision makers with the flexibility to choose the suitable capacity installation at different values of reliability and load shifting levels.

An assessment of wind power prospects in the Brazilian hydrothermal system

Abstract: Despite the need to reduce greenhouse gases, thermoelectric power plants were the main winners in electricity auctions held until 2009. This study evaluates the possibility of improving the prospects of increasing the clean and renewable energy mix. The new official energy plan for 2030, prepared for the Brazilian Government by the Energy Research Company (EPE 1 ), forecasts a relative increase in thermal generation using natural gas, coal and nuclear energy. In contrast to this plan, this study considers wind generation as a complement to hydropower rather than fossil and nuclear energy. Previously, the analysis of seasonal complementarities in Brazil between average inflow hydraulic energy (ANAh) and average inflow wind energy (ANAw) has been generally focused on an intra-annual period. However, in this study, an initial effort is made to analyze the multiannual complementarities of the two sources. The wind technology learning curve in Brazil and worldwide was investigated, and the results show the potential of competitiveness of wind power compared with other sources, such as nuclear power, gas and coal. The replacement of thermal-based expansion by wind power was simulated by a comparative analysis of the net present value (NPV) of fuel, operation, maintenance and capital costs, including the potential learning time, of both scenarios. The NPV results indicate that the total costs of wind generation represent 57% of the total thermal costs, showing its potential attractiveness and that it facilitates the reduction of the emission of greenhouse gases. Taking into account the population and the stabilization of energy demand in the 2040s, the possibility of meeting the energy demand of Brazil through renewable and sustainable energy sources, mainly hydropower and wind power, is demonstrated.