Investment In Transmission Infrastructure Research Articles

Leveraging rail-based mobile energy storage to increase grid reliability in the face of climate uncertainty

Maintaining reliability is increasingly challenging for electric grids as they endure more frequent extreme weather events and utilize more intermittent generation. Exploration of alternative reliability approaches is needed to effectively address these emerging issues. Here we examine the potential to use the US rail system as a nationwide backup transmission grid over which containerized batteries, or rail-based mobile energy storage (RMES), are shared among regions to meet demand peaks, relieve transmission congestion and increase resilience. We find that RMES is a feasible reliability solution for low-frequency, high-impact events and quantify its cost effectiveness relative to reliability-driven investments in transmission infrastructure and stationary capacity. Compared to new transmission lines and stationary battery capacity, deploying RMES for such events could save the power sector upwards of US$300 per kW-year and US$85 per kW-year, respectively. While no known technical barriers exclude RMES from grid participation, addressing interconnection challenges and revising regulatory frameworks is necessary for deployment at scale.

A mathematical programming formulation for long-term infrastructure investment planning in Small Island Developing States

Mixed-integer programming is a common method used in electricity generation and transmission optimization models. However, the size of the problem can result in extraordinarily long run times. Solve time also increases exponentially with the number of variables to optimize. There is therefore a constant trade-off between a realistic representation of the network and computational tractability. Additionally, actual data and publicly available, real-world application are scare. This is particularly true for Small Island Developing States. This paper bridges these gaps by describing a customized mathematical formulation for co-optimizing generation and transmission infrastructure investments. Data from the island of Jamaica and program scripts are available for reproduction. Key customizations to a mixed-integer programming model for long-term generation and transmission infrastructure investment planning include:•Hours are treated as representative hour categories and multiplied by the number of hour types within a given period.•Simulated construction is limited to every other year.•While fossil fuel plants are treated as discrete variables, renewable energy plants are treated as continuous variables.

Economic viability and regulation effects of infrastructure investments for inter-regional electricity transmission and trade in China

The transition of energy structure to renewable energy is a social and systematic engineering that requires complex regional power interconnection as a support. Thus, an assessment of the economic viability of infrastructure investments for supporting such transmission expansion is crucial. This study presents a multi-regional power system optimization model to evaluate the potential economic benefits of infrastructure investments for the national inter-regional electricity network in China under various scenarios in the context of low-carbon transformation. Key factors influencing economic benefits are analyzed specifically and regulation barriers associated with inter-regional electricity trade are given particular attention. The results show that approximately 140 Giga Watt (GW) of infrastructure construction for the inter-regional electricity trade network is economically viable during the planning horizon. These new interconnections would lead to 250–440 billion RMB of economic benefits. Regional electricity trade barriers caused by imperfect market mechanisms have a negative impact on the economic benefits of transmission infrastructure investments, although they promote scale and utilization efficiency in the power sector of electricity-importing regions. Improving the national grid coordination mechanism to break the grid isolation between the State Grid Corporation of China and the China Southern Power Grid is crucial, because a large number of transmission lines connecting these two national-level power grids are economically viable.

Route designs and cost estimation for Japan-Russia and Japan-South Korea interconnections

This paper describes route designs and cost estimation for possible interconnections between Japan-Russia and between Japan-South Korea based on the Asia International Grid Connection Study Group 2nd report. The Group has conducted a desktop study to design several cable routes as possible options. To optimize the route, the group studied a wide range of open data, regarding sea depth, fishery zones, geographic condition, available transmission capacity in connecting points inside Japan and so on.The result of desktop study shows that it is possible to keep sea depth for planned routes less than 300 m and length for most of designed routes is less than 600 km. Compare to existing undersea cables in Europe, proposed routes are not challenging from technical and geological viewpoints.The study shows that investment cost range, including cost for grid enhancement inside Japan, is from around 200 bn JPY to 600 bn JPY, depending on the routes. Annualized cost range is from around 8 to 24 bn JPY (for 25-year operation), which is not so large compare to 1800 bn JPY- average annual investment in transmission infrastructure by 10 power utilities in the past 23 years.

The transition towards a sustainable energy system in Europe: What role can North Africa's solar resources play?

Securing energy supply and speeding up the transition towards a reliable, sustainable, low-carbon energy system are among the major current and future challenges facing Europe. Importing dispatchable solar electricity from North Africa is considered as a potential and attractive option. Nevertheless, as things currently stand, the European Commission focuses mainly on the exploitation of the existing wind power potential in the North Sea, largely ignoring the solar power potential in the Sahara region of North Africa. After discussing the major challenges and issues facing Europe to achieve the assigned ambitious objectives, the paper emphasises the importance of North Africa's solar resources in helping Europe to successfully address the challenge of decarbonising its electricity system, in particular with regards to the security of supply and sustainability. Within these two major challenges, the paper explores the issues of access, barriers and opportunities. The paper highlights why the EU's energy and climate goals will not be achievable without adequate grid expansion and grid-scale energy storage facilities, as well as other innovative measures to manage demand and ensure a secure energy supply. In this respect, the paper shows how the import of dispatchable electricity from North Africa via specific HVDC links could play a key role in helping the EU achieve its energy targets in a cost-effective way without recourse to significant investments in transmission infrastructure and storage facilities. The paper then attempts to identify and analyze the main barriers that continue to inhibit the export of solar electricity from North Africa to Europe. Finally, to make the project more attractive and achievable in the near future, the paper proposes a systematic approach for setting up energy import scenarios. A promising import scenario is presented where energy import via Italy is shown to be a more viable and effective solution than via Spain.

Regional study on investment for transmission infrastructure in China based on the State Grid data

Transmission infrastructure is an integral component of safeguarding the stability of electricity delivery. However, existing studies of transmission infrastructure mostly rely on a simple review of the network, while the analysis of investments remains rudimentary. This study conducted the first regionally focused analysis of investments in transmission infrastructure in China to help optimize its structure and reduce investment costs. Using State Grid data, the investment costs, under various voltages, for transmission lines and transformer substations are calculated. By analyzing the regional profile of cumulative investment in transmission infrastructure, we assess correlations between investment, population, and economic development across the regions. The recent development of ultra-high-voltage transmission networks will provide policy-makers new options for policy development.

Investing in Transmission: Regulations to Achieve Europe's Energy Goals [In My View

Discusses how European Union policies will impact energy and utility services throughout Europe. Reaching EU goals will be an investment challenge. is an investment challenge. Electricity transmission infrastructure investments are a precondition to attaining European policy goals in the fields of climate and energy and sustainability.

Dynamic Grid Power Routing Using Controllable Network Transformers (CNTs) With Decoupled Closed-Loop Controller

Increases in system loads and in levels of penetration of renewable energy, together with limited investment in transmission infrastructure, are fostering the need for a smarter and more dynamically controllable grid. Flexible ac transmission systems devices can be used to dynamically control the grid and more efficiently route power and thus mitigate these stresses, but such devices are either too complicated and expensive for implementation or incapable of independently controlling active and reactive powers. A controllable network transformer (CNT) has a fractionally rated direct ac/ac converter and was introduced as a simpler and more cost-effective solution to realize dynamic power control between two areas. The CNT utilizes the dual virtual quadrature source (DVQS) technique to change both the line voltage amplitude and phase angle, thus enabling a dynamic power control; however, the control variables defined in this technique have a cross-coupling effect between active and reactive powers. In this paper, the CNT operating ranges with and without considering line resistance are analyzed; then, a decoupled closed-loop controller is designed to achieve independent active and reactive power control based on a reference power control command. To address the possibility of power overshoot in a CNT with DVQS, a hybrid open-loop/closed-loop proportional–integral controller is also proposed. Simulations and experimental results are given to verify the controller design.

Power Router for Meshed Systems Based on a Fractionally Rated Back-to-Back Converter

Increasing energy demand and growth of wind generation have significantly increased the stress on the electric grid. The low investment in transmission infrastructure necessitates adoption of methods for efficient use of existing resources. Power converter-based FACTS devices, capable of dynamic power-flow control, have been the preferred solution to maximize utilization of existing infrastructure, but implementation of traditional FACTS solutions at transmission level voltages is complex and cost prohibitive. This paper proposes a power router (PR) for dynamic power-flow control in a meshed network. The proposed PR is realized by augmenting a transformer with a fractionally rated back-to-back converter. The main advantages of the proposed converter are the fractional converter rating and reduced low-frequency transformer requirement compared to the traditional FACTS solutions. This paper outlines the proposed PR topology, control range, controller design and demonstrates the functionality through simulation and experimental results.

Environment Protection and Energy Saving in Public Private Partnerships Governance in the Distributed Energy Generation

Ecological and environmental governance is vital to global sustainability. The role of energy saving in achieving CO2 emissions reductions is known to be important for environment protection . PPPs governance in DEG can be considered key to driving down traditional energy demand and hence CO2 emissions in the coming sustainable economy. Over the coming decade, Centralized Energy Generation (CEG) will decline relative to Distributed Energy Generation (DEG) such as solarphotovolatic, microturbines, fuel cells, combined heat and power and variety of renewable energy. This shift promises to improve power reliability, deliver cleaner power and avoid significant investments in transmission infrastructure. As an integrated hybrid governance system of sustainability, PPPs enjoys high efficiency of governance via collective efforts of multi-agents involved. In order to promote the governance quality of DEG, it is of importance to harness the advantages of integration of PPPs Governance in DEG project. This paper examined PPPs governance in order to improve efficiency of Distributed Energy Generation, it firstly briefly outlines the profile of PPPs, then illustrates the essentials of good PPPs governance in global DEG governance context. Finally, it draws the conclusion that how to ensure the efficiency of PPPs in collective governance of DEG projects.