GOING OFFSHORE
CHALLENGES OF THE FUTURE POWER GRID
This symposium is an initiative of Department of Energy Technology of Aalborg University and Cigré Danish National Committee. The transmission grid is both looking at and undergoing major challenges in the future due to integration of renewables and especially offshore wind power plants (OWPP) are a key player in reaching the goals of reducing carbon emission.
The transmission grid faces challenges both with regards to the connection of OWPP as well as in the need for restructuring the grid to operate differently compared to its original layout.
These challenges inherently reside in the fact that no real transmission grid exists offshore. Today’s OWPP are point-to point onshore/offshore lines. Moreover, the choice of technology depends on the technological development and HVDC is foreseen to be able to play a key role in some offshore grid scenarios together with HVAC.
The challenges of the latter are already ongoing. Transmission corridors are uprated; new lines are built to accommodate the change in both geographical and timely generation/load patterns as well as the need to operate the system in a fundamentally different way than with large centralized plants close to load centers providing the majority of the power.
On top of that the technical impacts of the ever-ongoing adoption of larger and larger shares of distributed/dispersed generation and the need for changing the distribution system operation leads to new challenges for the structure and operation of the whole energy system which necessitates an overall planning and system operation coordination between distribution and transmission systems. As an example of this more than 50 % of the annual energy produced in Denmark comes from dispersed generation sources which are fed into the distribution system.
Finally; the impact on the environment is a huge factor. Both government decision bodies as well as the public opinion strongly monitor the power industry. To get permission to design and construct renewable plants and the necessary grid infrastructure thorough analysis of environmental impact is crucial.
This symposium intends to share the latest research and real life system experience obtained in the context of the future transmission and distribution grid.
