Increased integration of renewable energies requires innovative grid stabilization and optimization solutions
ABB will present some of its latest digital solutions for the grid, based on the ABB-Ability™ platform. These technologies help customers to stabilize the power grid and operate more efficiently. ABB Ability™ brings together all of ABB’s digital products and services, combining ABB’s technology offering, domain competence and global installed base with its vast portfolio including enterprise software solutions and a new distributed energy resource management system (DERMS).
Our entire power system is currently undergoing unprecedented change and this affects all voltage levels. While we are continuously reducing the number of fossil-fueled power plants in the grid, we are steadily expanding the generation of electricity from renewable energies. Offshore wind farms and large photovoltaic systems have been set up where the sun and wind can be used optimally. But this is not usually where the busiest consumption centers are calling for grid infrastructure and the need to transmit power over long distances.
Many changes and network enhancements are also required, in the distribution grid, with distributed power generation, influx of renewables and new demand loads including charging infrastructure for electric mobility. Photovoltaics on rooftops and a growing number of battery storage solutions are turning many consumers into "prosumers". In addition, the use of modern technologies enable us to control numerous processes in "smart" homes.
All these changes create a high degree of dynamics in the grid, which means that grid operators at all voltage levels have to intervene and regulate and adapt. Digital solutions help grid operators to make these necessary interventions more efficiently and effectively by reducing their number through the use of innovative solutions and by automating part of the interventions. To achieve this, advanced monitoring, communication and control systems need to be deployed along the entire value chain, from generation over transmission and distribution to storage and consumption of energy. Only more intelligence in the grid allows the benefits of digital technologies to be harnessed.
Digital substations will play a crucial role in the power grids of the future. Analog signals over copper cables are replaced by digital communications over fiber optic cables, increasing flexibility, availability, and safety while reducing the costs, risks, and environmental impact. The growing volumes of data available in digital substations will also allow for improved monitoring, diagnostics, backup and optimization of equipment. State of the art data is collected in real time and around the clock via the Internet of Things. ABB Ability ™ solutions can filter and analyze this data with cloud-based software developed from our profound experience in the power transmission industry.
Another example of the use of innovative solutions is the world’s first hybrid Static Compensator (STATCOM), which ABB is delivering to transmission system operator TenneT at the Borken substation in Hessen, Germany. It will support the grid with flexible reactive power compensation and dynamic voltage support, to reduce the risk of voltage collapse and power outages. ABB’s STATCOM is an intelligent device that stabilizes voltage fluctuations caused by the intermittent nature of wind or solar and helps to smoothly transmit this electricity. ABB’s advanced MACH™ control system, a part of the ABB-Ability™ digital offering, acts as the brain of the STATCOM (and also other systems including HVDC controls) providing essential monitoring, control and protection functionality that ensures reliable and efficient power supply.
ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a pioneering technology leader in electrification products, robotics and motion, industrial automation and power grids, serving customers in utilities, industry and transport & infrastructure globally. Continuing a history of innovation spanning more than 130 years, ABB today is writing the future of industrial digitalization with two clear value propositions: bringing electricity from any power plant to any plug and automating industries from natural resources to finished products. As title partner of Formula E, the fully electric international FIA motorsport class, ABB is pushing the boundaries of e-mobility to contrib-ute to a sustainable future. ABB operates in more than 100 countries with about 135,000 employees. www.abb.com
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