All about Power Grid

In the energy sector, the term “curtailment” refers to the reduction of power production (“generation curtailment”) or – less frequently - power consumption (“load curtailment”) when there is too much electricity in the grid (generation curtailment) or when there is not enough power in the grid (load curtailment). Curtailment aims at lessening the stress on the grid at a given moment of the day. Most commonly, curtailment is associated with the reduction of infeed from renewable energy sources.

On Friday 14 Aug, an extremely hot and dry day in California and the west, California’s independent system operator (CAISO) had to resort to limited rolling blackouts that affected approximately 400,000 customers in California on Friday and the following Saturday 15 Aug.

In a Virtual Power Plant, thousands of systems provide balancing services every day. But how exactly are the individual units selected for the provision of balancing energy? Which factors are taken into consideration?

To turn national electricity grids into a large European electricity market, the various national transmission system operators (TSOs) need transit capacity for cross-border electricity trade. These border connection points, also called cross-border interconnectors, enable TSOs at international level to transfer electricity from one national grid to another. Only cross-border interconnectors can turn on-balance-sheet electricity trading into real, physical electricity deliveries. Their expansion is therefore a central starting point of the European Commission's electricity market policy and the implementation of the integrated European energy market.

The COVID-19 pandemic shakes up the world – but the power grid in Europe remains stable. What ensures this stability and how do the electricity markets in Germany and Europe react to the situation?

Jan de Decker, Paul Kreutzkamp and Elias de Keyser from Next Kraftwerke Belgium explain in this blog what lessons can be learnt from the roughly nine months of the mixed price system on the reserve power market in Germany.

How the mixed-pricing system turns the security of the electricity grid into a speculative mass: On the sixth, 12th and 25th of June 2019, market distortions occurred in Germany; some of which had severe effects on the electricity grid.

On 10 January 2019, the utility frequency of Europe’s power grid dropped to 49.8 hertz. Many factors contributed to the near-blackout that evening, but the incident is not the only one in recent weeks that has shaken the grid.

On the energy market, the balancing group (also known as the balancing authority) accounts for all power produced and/or consumed by a collection of assets within the group. Accounting for the group’s net production or consumption serves as an instrument for providing a particular operating region the precise amount of power it needs. The group manages the balancing act between power feed-in and off-take. This is designed to avoid over- and underproduction as much as possible by efficiently utilizing the power grid with minimal frequency fluctuations. Ultimately, the goal is to simultaneously match the amount of power consumed and produced within the grid.

In the second part of our series, we will talk about different concepts for Virtual Power Plants on islands and island groups for providing a sustainable and secure power supply.