Year of grant:
2018

Research Area:
Náttúruvísindi og tøkni

Project type:
Vinnu Ph.d.- verkætlan

Project title:
Ensuring Grid Stability and Supply Reliebility in a 100% Renewable Electricity Sector in the Faroe Islands

Grant number:
2012

Project manager:
Helma Maria Tróndheim

Institution/company:
SEV, Aalborg Universitet

Other participants:
Claus Leth Bak, Filipe Faria da Silva, Bárður A. Niclasen, Terji Nielsen

Project period:
01.11.2018 - 01.11.2021
05.11.2018 - 08.04.2022

Total budget:
2.200.000

Grant from the FRC in DKK:
1.000.000

Project description:
Original
The purpose of this project is to plan how a 100% renewable electricity sector in the Faroe Islands by 2030 can be achieved, with a focus on the grid stability and reliability. The first part of the investigation will revolve around the optimal mixture of different production and long-term storage technologies based on availabe resources, the advancement of the technologies and economics. This will be done by using tools developed for the purpose. Renewable energy sources are to a degree unpredictable, and in addition to this, they are less capable of providing the anciltary service that conventional generators can. This introduces regarding to the grid reliability and stability. Ensuring a stable and reliable grid is the main focus of this research project. The initiatives necessary to ensure a strong grid will be investigated, considering both traditional and state of the art technologies. A plan for the frequency and voltage stability on transmission level will be developed and tested using power system simulations. Finally, if time allows it, an economical assessment of the transition a 100%renewable sector will be conducted.

Final
The Power Company in the Faroe Islands, SEV, and the Faroese Government have a vision to reach a 100% renewable electricity production by 2030. A tangible plan is needed in order to reach this ambitious goal, whilst ensuring supply reliability and grid stability in this isolated power system. This is the objective of this research project.

Ensuring the security of supply and resource adequacy in a power system predominately based on renewable energy resources is challenging, due to the weather dependency of the production and available storage options, especially in an isolated system. The first part of this thesis focuses on obtaining a tangible RoadMap with investments in generation, storage and transmission capacity needed to reach a 100% renewable electricity production in the Faroe Islands by 2030 and thus, ensures supply reliability. Existing expansion planning tools primarily consist of optimisation algorithms, which optimise capacities annually. Hence, the capacity of e.g. a specific transmission cable can increase year by year, whilst in reality a cable is either installed or not. This study uses the economic optimisation tool Balmorel, which optimises the investments and dispatch. A method to translate these optimal results to a practical RoadMap, has been developed. This method also considers practical constraints like the local resource potential, power plant locations and sizes.

Multiple scenarios, considering different technologies, have been analysed. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis of investment and fuel costs has been conducted. According to the results investing in renewables is the economically best option up to 87% renewable energy. Reaching 100% renewables in 2030 requires increasing the renewable generation capacity by almost 80% compared to the capacity needed for 87% renewables. The study also shows that if the potential of tidal energy can be unlocked, it has a disruptive influence on the future power system, as 72 MW of tidal power could replace 155 MW of hydro, wind, photovoltaic and battery power and decrease the pumped storage reservoir capacity by 75%.

The second part of the study focuses on investigating the grid stability of the power system through dynamic simulations. This study focuses on the grid on the isolated island of Suðuroy, which has a electricity demand that is around 10% of the total demand. Starting with Suðuroy will provide valuable lessons learned to the rest of the system. In order to investigate the stability, a model suitable for load flow and dynamic simulations has been developed and validated. The available information about the governors and automatic voltage regulators of the synchronous generators is very limited. Therefore, these have been modelled using standard models. Using some of the existing approaches to parameterise the models, did not result in a model which could be dynamically validated. Therefore, a procedure combining different existing approaches was developed in order to parameterise and validate these models.

Dynamic RMS simulations over a 4.5 hour period without disturbances and shorter simulations, e.g. 30 seconds, with large disturbances have been conducted. The frequency and voltage fluctuations and their dependency on inverter-based generation shares and fluctuations have been investigated through the 4.5 hour simulations. The stability in Suðuroy towards 2030 has been investigated through the shorter simulations with disturbances. The study shows that initiatives are necessary in order to maintain the same frequency and voltage stability at the same level as today. However, according to the RoadMap the grid of Suðuroy should be connected to the main grid in 2026 through a subsea cable. The main grid is significantly larger than the grid of Suðuroy, and therefore contributes with ancillary services to Suðuroy. Two network reduction models and one detailed model have been used to represent the main grid in the simulations post 2026, and the results show that using network reductions causes implications when frequency triggered technologies, in this case batteries, are contributing to the stability. The dynamic stability of Suðuroy should be investigated further, especially scenarios in which the subsea cable to the main grid is out of service. The dynamic stability of the main grid also has to be studied.

The results of this research project are of great significance when in the transition toward a 100% renewable electricity sector in the Faroe Islands. The methods developed and lessons learned can also be applied to other power systems, especially similar power systems.

Project status:
Liðug

Project output:
Scientific articles, books, thesis etc.
The PhD thesis is entitled: Ensuring Supply Reliability and Grid Stability in a 100% Renewable Electricity Sector in the Faroe Islands. It was defended on 24th June 2022

Articles
H. M. Tróndheim, B. A. Niclasen, T. Nielsen, C. L. Bak, and F. F. da Silva, "Introduction to the Energy Mixture in an Isolated Grid with 100% Renewable Electricity - the Faroe Islands," in Proceedings of CIGRE Symposium Aalborg 2019. Aalborg, Denmark: CIGRE (International Council on Large Electric Systems), 2019.

H. M. Tróndheim, T. Nielsen, B. A. Niclasen, C. L. Bak, and F. F. da Silva, “The Least-Cost Path to a 100% Renewable Electricity Sector in the Faroe Islands,” in Proceedings of 4th International Hybrid Power Systems Workshop. Crete, Greece: Energynautics GmbH, 2019.

H. M. Tróndheim, B. A. Niclasen, T. Nielsen, F. F. D. Silva and C. L. Bak, "100% Sustainable Electricity in the Faroe Islands: Expansion Planning Through Economic Optimization," in IEEE Open Access Journal of Power and Energy, vol. 8, pp. 23-34, 2021. Selected as IEEE Open Access Journal of Power and Energy Trending Topic Paper March 2021. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

J. Cochran, C. L. Bak, P. L. Francos, D. McGowan, A. Iliceto, G. Kiseliovas, J. Rondou, H. M. Tróndheim, and J. Whiteford, "Same goal, different pathways for energy transition," in IEEE Power and Energy Magazine, vol. 20, no. 4, 2022.

H. M. Tróndheim, J. R. Pillai, T. Nielsen, C. L. Bak, F. F. da Silva, B. A. Niclasen, "Frequency Regulation in an Isolated Grid with a High Penetration of Renewables - the Faroe Islands," in 2020 Cigre Session: Papers and Proceedings. Paris, France: CIGRE (International Council on Large Electric Systems), 2020.

H. M. Tróndheim, L. Hofmann, P. Gartmann, E. Quitmann, F. F. da Silva, C. L. Bak, T. Nielsen, and B. A. Niclasen, "Frequency and Voltage Analysis of the Hybrid Power System in Suðuroy, Faroe Islands," in Proceedings of Virtual 5th International Hybrid Power Systems Workshop. Energynautics GmbH, 2021.

H. M. Tróndheim, L. Hofmann, P. Gartmann, E. Quitmann, C. L. Bak, F. F. da Silva, T. Nielsen, and B. A. Niclasen, "Frequency and Voltage Stability Towards 100% Renewables in Suðuroy, Faroe Islands," CIGRE Science and Engineering Journal, June 2022.

Other results, such as unpublished articles, patents, computer systems, original models and new procedures
H. M. Tróndheim, F. F. da Silva, C. L. Bak, T. Nielsen, B. A. Niclasen, R. S. Nielsen, and N. Weikop, "Alternative and Combined Procedure for Parameter Identification and Validation of Governor and Automatic Voltage Regulator Dynamic Models," (In review).

Publications outside the scientific community, i.e. lectures, periodicals, articles in newspapers, television and radio
Presentations
• EA Energy Analyses, 2019: Presentation on the 100by2030 vision and the research objectives.
• Granskingardagur, 2019: Presentation on project objectives and initial results for employees of the University of the Faroe Islands.
• Minesto, 2019: Presentation on research results with regards to the influence of tidal energy for the board and management of the Swedish company Minesto.
• Arctic Circle 2019: Invited by the Faroese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to present the energy transition in the Faroe Islands, with focus on the 100by2030 vision and the ongoing research project.
• High Schools, 2019-2021: Presentations on the 100by2030 vision and the ongoing research results for 5 different high school classes.
• SEV, 2019-2021: Presentations on the ongoing research results on multiple occasions for the board, management and engineers.
• ORKA (Energy Authority), 2020-2021: Presentation of ongoing research results on two occasions.
• Viden og vækst, 2021: Invited to have an oral conference presentation on the project and the cooperation between AAU, UFI and SEV.
• Vísindavøka 2021 (European Researcher’s Night 2021 Faroe Islands): Poster presentation on power system stability with unstable resources. Awarded 1st price.
• Ljósfest, 2021: Public presentation about research results at the celebration of 100 years of electricity in the Faroe Islands.
• Ocean Energy Europe 2021: Invited by the organisers to present how tidal energy could disrupt the future energy composition in the Faroe Islands.
Canadian Embassy in Denmark, 2021: Presentation on the 100by2030 vision and research results.
• 13th MRIA Marine Renewables Emerging Technologies Industry Forum, 2022: Invited by organisers to present how tidal energy could disrupt the future energy composition in the Faroe Islands. Invited at Ocean Energy Europe 2021.

Media participation
• National TV news (Kringvarp Føroya, Dagur og vika), May 2019: Presented early research finding on the daily TV news.
• Student’s Magazine (MFS, Fjølnir 2020), 2020: Authored an article on the technical challenges with renewable energy.
• Podcast (Nýhugsan), September 2020: Discussed research questions and findings.
• National newspaper (Dimmalætting), March 2021: Interview with reference to being selected as IEEE Open Access Journal of Power and Energy Trending Topic Paper March 2021.
• National radio show (Kringvarp Føroya, Breddin), April 2021: Commentator on challenges with a specific wind farm offer.
• National newspaper (Sosialurin), April 2021: Interviewed about the 100by2030 stepping stones.
• National radio show (Kringvarp Føroya, Breddin), October 2021: Commentator on the situation in the Faroe Islands with reference to COP26.
• National TV show (Rás 1, Búskapur og vinna), January 2022: Explained different aspects of the energy transition in the Faroe Islands.




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