Role of energy storage in enhancing operation and stability performance of sustainable power systems (RESTORES)

7d1b7c3d-8952-44ef-97a4-f392e7df1dcb

Closed

EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC

£5,099,785

June 30, 2014

June 30, 2017

RESTORES project seeks to bring together a joint UK-China consortium with the skills necessary to assess the potential contribution of different storage technologies to support cost-effective steady state and dynamic operation and frequency and angular stability of storage supported power system with large penetration of renewable intermittent and stochastic generation.

This will involve characterisation and aggregation of steady-state, dynamic and transit responses of multiple types of grid-scale energy storage systems, with a key challenge of dealing with uncertainty and incorporation of inter-temporal dependencies associated with changes in aggregated storage charging / discharging ratings across time.

Furthermore, we will carry out fundamental research to incorporate, for the first time, multi-time scale phenomena in generation scheduling while achieving appropriate robustness of schedules. The focus on the investigation of new multi-layer scheduling and dispatch models and integrate pseudo-dynamic constraints, which has not been attempted before.

We will finally develop novel stability methodologies for ranking generators and storage technologies based on their contribution to system frequency and angular stability, investigate new framework for probabilistic risk based stability assessment, which will characterise, for the first time, dynamic signature of sustainable systems, identify aggregate dynamic contribution of dispersed storage technologies and develop local and WAMS based damping controllers for individual units and clusters of energy storage technologies.

The results of the project will contribute to preventing society from incurring potentially huge costs and discomfort due to uncertainties resulting from spatial and temporal uncertainty associated with the operation of renewable generation and increase confidence in the future power system's ability to satisfy the long term needs of society and industry, as the level of uncertainty and risk in the power system increases.

Potential Impact:
This RESTORES project aims to provide a vision and strategic direction for the use of energy storage technologies for enhancement of operation and frequency and angular stability of sustainable power systems.

In order to ensure the impact is realised the project has been developed in close collaboration with stakeholders from industry and academia in both the UK and China. It is inspired by current lack of understanding of potential contribution that different storage technologies can provide to system operation and stability, the limitations of current deterministic approach to assessment of dynamic performance and generation scheduling of uncertain power systems with large penetration of stochastic and intermittent renewable generation and opportunities opened by advanced communication and information technologies in combination with plethora of available bulk and highly distributed energy storage technologies.

The combination of developed understanding of dynamic contribution of new storage technologies and mathematical and control framework for their effective deployment and utilisation could massively enhance robustness of sustainable system operation and dynamic performance. This would spur new developments and transformation across the storage technology-power system interface by bringing together experts in energy storage, control systems, power systems economics and operation and network dynamics specialists.

The proposed cutting edge research would not only benefit from the input from a wide range of disciplines, but it will also move each of these disciplines forward as scientific breakthroughs are made in the wider energy context.