EU - FP6 - ENERGY Contract Number 20045. Total project budget: EUR 1.290.000,-
Project strategic objectives:
In order to accommodate the random production of energy in the grid, it would be most convenient when alternative (renewable and conventional) electricity producers could balance out the difference between production of energy and electricity demand by means of storage. The Night Wind project aims to store wind energy produced at night in refrigerated warehouses, and to release this energy during daytime peak hours.
Coordinator contact details:
TNO - Refrigeration Department, PO Box 342 7300 AH Apeldoorn, The Netherlands S.M. van der Sluis, M.Sc.( Sietze.vanderSluis@tno.nl ) T: +31555493162 M: +31622511060
Night Wind Project main goals:
1. Integrating renewable energy resources into the European energy service network by providing new facilities for energy storage
2. Increasing the economic value of wind energy by providing means to deliver the energy at peak demand hours.
3. Increasing the competitiveness of SME Cold Storage facilities by providing adding “energy storage” as an additional service to be provided for the European energy service network.
4. The overall impact is that the project will offer a solution to integrate wind energy with energy storage in the European electrical grid, giving space to a further growth in the use of wind energy worldwide and a contribution to the Kyoto targets at the same time.
Key issues:
The integration of wind po wer into the national or EU energy supply systems is becoming relatively more problematic with increasing installed capacity and production, especially due to a mismatch of supply and demand of energy. The wind energy is produced at rather random times, whereas the energy use pattern shows distinct demand peaks during day time and office hours, and low levels during the night.
The random production of wind energy cannot easily be accommodated on the grid by switching on and off conventional energy suppliers, like coal fired po wer plants, which would lead to an increase of CO2 emissions, rather than the reduction of CO2 emissions which is desired.
In order to accommodate the random production of wind energy in the grid, it would be most convenient when alternative (renewable and conventional) electricity producers could balance out the difference between production of wind energy and electricity demand. The Night Wind project aims to store wind energy produced at night in refrigerated warehouses, and to release this energy during daytime peak hours.
Technical approach:
The whole idea for “Night Wind” makes use of existing technology, extended with novel control strategies. The new control strategies are needed to set the temperature level in refrigerated warehouses to a level that is derived from the actual balance between wind energy production and actual electricity demand. This is the case for “island operation” with delivery of surplus energy to the grid, and also for the case of Distributed Energy Resources (DER), where windmills are physically located elsewhere than the (existing) cold stores, but controlled in an interdependent way to sup po rt the European energy service network. Design of control strategies, with the help of po werful simulation tools will be the main task in the Night Wind project.
The research stage of the project includes the following topics:
- Potential, economic & trade aspects of Wind Power DER + Cold Store DSM
- Design & modelling of infrastructures for island operation of Wind Energy + Cold Store DSM
- Control concepts and algorithms for Wind Energy + Cold Store DSM grid integration
- Quality preservation of frozen products during minor temperature fluctuations
- Legal issues
- Demonstration & introduction outline plan
Expected achievements:
The Night Wind Project intends to bring an idea into demonstration. It starts with a kick off meeting, followed by a phase in which literature will be surveyed and a technical specification will be set up. The benefits of the idea need to be detailed, both the benefits on a macroscopic scale from the European view po int of integrating RES with the energy network, and the benefits on a smaller scale to the energy distributors, warehouse owners and the end users. It is furthermore necessary to address a number of basic research topics - such as the effect of temperature fluctuations on the quality of stored refrigerated and frozen products - before the idea can be demonstrated with minimal risks.
The demonstration phase of the project should mark the start of a larger scale implementation. Therefore, the project will include the preparation of an implementation outline plan, which will be based on the preliminary experiences gained in the demonstration, and will include an effort from representatives from the sectors in which are dir ectly involved in the implementation: the refrigerated warehouse sector and the energy distribution sector.
Demonstration
The project demonstration is planned as of the second half of 2007 at the site of Partner Logistics Bergen op Zoom (The Netherlands), one of the larges Coldstores in The Netherlands.
Wind turbines are located in the nearby windpark Halsteren (ESSENT). The Coldstore refrigeration system control will be adapted to store the produced wind energy during the night.
For daytime situations, the Night Wind system control will make decisions when to sell the produced energy and when to use it to operate the Coldstore's refigeration system.
Research Partners
The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research - TNO - Refrigeration (coordinator).
The new University of Denmark - Risø - Wind energy department.
National Renewable Energies Centre, Spain - CENER
Technical University of Sofia, Bulgaria
Industry Partners
Essent Energy Trading, The Netherlands
Dutch association of Cold Store owners NEKOVRI - member of ECSLA (European Cold Store & Logistics Association)
Partner Logistics Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands (Cold Store, demonstration site)
Presentations
Agenda
2006 : September 20th: Kick off meeting (Apeldoorn, The Netherlands)
2007: May 7th-10th: EWEC 2007 (Milan, Italy)
2007: August: ICR 2007 (Beijng, China)
2008: February: Back 2 Basics (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
2008: April: EE & RES (Sofia, Bulgaria)
