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WGRID-49 GMLC Project Report: Understanding the Role of Short-Term Energy Storage and Large Motor Loads for Active Power Controls by Wind Power

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1558905· OSTI ID:1558905
The GMLC project is built upon the results of pioneering research funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)—in collaboration with the Electric Power Research Institute and the University of Colorado—on active power controls (APC) by wind power during 2013–2016. The studies detailed in the first APC by wind power project have shown tremendous promise for the potential for wind power plants to provide APC. The goal of this project was to continue the previous work and develop and validate coordinated controls of APC by wind generation, short-term energy storage, and large industrial motor drives for providing various types of ancillary services to the grid and minimizing loading impacts on wind turbines (e.g., drivetrains), thereby reducing operation-and-maintenance (O&M) costs and subsequently reducing the cost of energy generated by wind power. This work used the $30 million, multiyear DOE investments and the unique characteristics of NREL’s existing National Wind Technology Center test site, including a combination of multimegawatt utility-scale wind turbine generators, a 1-MW/1-MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), industrial variable-frequency motor drives, a 1-MW solar photovoltaic (PV) array, and a 7-MVA controllable grid interface. This combination of technologies allows for the optimization, testing, and demonstration of various types of APC by wind power in coordination with other generation sources (including regenerative loads) and energy storage to allow for enhancing or, in some cases, substituting the APC services by wind power and reducing impacts on wind turbine component life and thus increasing the availability and reliability of the power supply from wind
Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Wind Energy Technologies Office; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Water Power Technologies Office
DOE Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1558905
Report Number(s):
NREL/TP--5D00-72888
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English