ees Europe highlights the potential of virtual power plants
Munich, June 2, 2016 – The future belongs to smart networks of decentralized energy generation plants: Energy consumption and generation in households, commercial enterprises and industry will only be balanced in the future, preferably at all times of day, when PV installations, wind power plants, micro CHP plants and other energy producers and consumers are digitally connected and controlled. Modern information and communications technology (ICT) and energy storage devices are essential for realizing the energy supply of the future. Batteries, heat storage tanks, power-to-gas plants and power to heat aggregates guarantee the frequency stability in the grid, and form the basis for flexible coordination between energy supply and demand in the smart grid. Europe’s largest exhibition for batteries and energy storage systems, ees Europe, together with Intersolar Europe, the world’s leading exhibition for the solar industry and its partners, provide visitors with an international platform on this topic at the Smart Renewable Energy Forum from June 22-24, 2016. Economic, technical and scientific questions concerning the interaction between solar and wind energy and storage devices will be discussed at the platform, where virtual power plants take center stage.
Restructuring energy generation from a centralized to a decentralized, sustainable and cost-efficient structure necessitates an optimization of the supply system. This increases the importance of achieving the perfect interplay between grid expansion, smart grids, the application of coordinated storage devices, and conventional and renewable generation systems connecting the electricity and heating markets. The result is a virtual power plant – over the course of this development, they have become the backbone of the energy supply of the future.
Storage solutions play a central role in intelligent networking. As energy sources like the sun are not always consistently available, it is essential that energy supply and demand are flexibly coordinated. This is only possible through intelligently networked power grids and with the help of energy storage systems, which absorb excess energy and then make it available again when required. A study carried out by Prognos AG on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy has recently shown the considerable future potential of such solutions, also in view of lowering costs: The study revealed that smart solar storage systems reduced the costs of grid expansion by over 100 million euros per year in the distribution grid of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg alone.
