Identification of Energy Storage Capacities Within Large-Scale Power Plants and Development of Control Strategies to Increase Marketable Grid Services

In order to meet future demands, existing and new plants need to be optimized to offer additional control reserves to stabilize an electrical grid, which is highly penetrated by fluctuating renewables. Since this requires a dynamic investigation, transient physical based models of different power plants have been developed to evaluate effects of increased flexibility as well as to develop optimization strategies. The approach has been tested for a specific 500 MW lignite-fired power plant. It includes detailed modeling of the incorporated sub-systems and their interactions as well as the implementation of the power plant’s control system. The dynamic simulation model is used for the identification of energy storage potentials within the process and for testing and developing control strategies in order to increase flexibility and marketable output of the process. The strategies are benchmarked and evaluated based on the consideration of exergetic efficiency and lifetime-consumption of critical components.