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 Management for Electric Tugboats Through Operating Load Estimation

Abstract: This brief presents an optimal power management scheme for an electromechanical marine vessel’s powertrain. An optimization problem is formulated to optimally split the power supply from engines and battery in response to a load demand, while minimizing the engine fuel consumption and maintaining the battery life, wherein the cost function associates penalties corresponding to the engine fuel consumption, the change in battery’s state of charge (SOC), and the excess power that cannot be regenerated. Utilizing the nonlinear optimization approach, an optimal scheduling for the power output of the engines and optimal charging/discharging rate of the battery is determined while accounting for the constraints due to the rated power limits of engine/battery and battery’s SOC limits. The proposed optimization algorithm can schedule the operation, i.e., starting time and stopping time for a multiengine configuration optimally, which is a key difference from the previously developed optimal power management algorithms for land-based hybrid electric vehicles. Afterward, a novel load prediction scheme that requires only the information regarding the general operational characteristics of the marine vessel that anticipates the load demand at a given time instant from the historical load demand data during that operation is introduced. This prediction scheme schedules the engine and battery operation by solving prediction-based optimizations over consecutive horizons. Numerical illustration is presented on an industry-consulted harbor tugboat model, along with a comparison of the performance of the proposed algorithm with a baseline conventional rule-based controller to demonstrate its feasibility and effectiveness. The simulation results demonstrate that the optimal cost for electric tugboat operation is 9.31% lower than the baseline rule-based controller. In the case of load uncertainty, the prediction-based algorithm yields a cost 8.90% lower than the baseline rule-based controller.

Wind Power Impacts on Electric Power System Operating Costs: Summary and Perspective on Work to Date; Preprint

Abstract: Electric utility system planners and operators are concerned that variations in wind plant output may increase the operating costs of the system. This concern arises because the system must maintain an instantaneous balance between the aggregate demand for electric power and the total power generated by all power plants feeding the system. This is a highly sophisticated task that utility operators and automatic controls perform routinely, based on well-known operating characteristics for conventional power plants and a great deal of experience accumulated over many years. System operators are concerned that variations in wind plant output will force the conventional power plants to provide compensating variations to maintain system balance, thus causing the conventional power plants to deviate from operating points chosen to minimize the total cost of operating the system. The operators' concerns are compounded by the fact that conventional power plants are generally under their control and thus are dispatchable, whereas wind plants are controlled instead by nature. Although these are valid concerns, the key issue is not whether a system with a significant amount of wind capacity can be operated reliably, but rather to what extent the system operating costs are increased by the variability of the wind.

Control system and method for operating a wind farm in a balanced state

Abstract: A method for operating a wind farm which includes a wind farm control system and at least two wind turbines, which are connected via an internal grid, is provided. The method includes determining the actual power consumption of the wind farm; and adjusting the power production of at least one of the wind turbines so that the actual power production and actual power consumption of the wind farm are substantially equal. Further, a method for operating a wind farm which includes a wind farm control system and several power sources, are connected via an internal grid, is provided. At least two of the power sources are wind turbines and at least one power source is an additional power source selected from a group consisting of a fuel power source, a battery-based power source and a solar power source. The method includes determining the actual power consumption of the wind farm; and adjusting the power production of at least one of the power sources so that the actual power production and actual power consumption of the wind farm are substantially equal. Furthermore, a wind farm control system arranged for balancing the power production and consumption of a wind farm is provided.

Very Large-Scale Deployment of Grid-Connected Solar Photovoltaics in the United States: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract: This paper analyzes the potential for solar photovoltaics (PV) to be deployed on a very large scale and provide a large fraction of a system's electricity. It explicitly examines how the hourly availability of PV interacts with the limited flexibility of traditional electricity generation plants. The authors found that, under high penetration levels and existing grid-operation procedures and rules, the system will have excess PV generation during certain periods of the year. This excess PV generation results in increased costs, which can increase dramatically when PV provides on the order of 10%-15% of total electricity demand in systems that are heavily dependent on inflexible baseload steam plants. Measures to increase penetration of PV are also discussed, including increased system flexibility, increased dispatchable load, and energy storage.