How can energy storage technology be applied to power systems?
Compared to traditional power grids, smart grids have significant advantages in all four major aspects of power generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption, making them a strategic industry attracting concentrated investment from countries worldwide. Smart grids achieve energy conservation by optimizing the supply and demand and application of traditional and new energy sources, address energy structure mismatches through ultra-high voltage (UHV) technology, and improve the overall stability and efficiency of the power grid through high-efficiency distribution technology. They are an essential path to addressing the energy crisis.
The application of energy storage technology in power systems can change the traditional model where electricity production, transmission, and consumption must be completed simultaneously. Currently, my country is planning and vigorously developing a robust smart grid, comprehensively covering the six major links of "generation-transmission-transformation-distribution-consumption-dispatch" and the construction of information platforms. Energy storage technology will be a crucial component of the future smart grid, involved in all major aspects of its construction.
Meanwhile, energy storage technology plays an indispensable role in integrating intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power into the grid. The significance of developing energy storage technology also includes peak shaving and valley filling, regulating and saving energy, improving the efficiency of the power grid system, delaying construction investment, and ensuring the safety of the power grid system. As a strategic emerging industry, energy storage is a crucial link in enhancing the security, flexibility, and overall efficiency of the power system, and is also one of the key technologies supporting energy transition. In 2020, many regions vigorously promoted the installation of energy storage systems on the renewable energy generation side. Industry insiders predict that "new energy + energy storage" will become the standard configuration for energy development in various provinces during the 14th Five-Year Plan period.
The role of energy storage methods in various stages of smart grids
1) Power generation system: energy control and management, peak load operation, grid connection support for new energy power generation, improving the stability and reliability of power plants, black start of power plant systems, and delaying investment in new power plants, etc.
2) Power transmission and distribution system: ensure power quality, improve the stability and reliability of the power grid, make the most of the existing power grid to delay investment and construction, and alleviate peak-hour congestion of the power grid.
3) Ancillary services: Adjusting control frequency, saving surplus power, and providing reliable backup power, etc.
4) Power user end: Improve power system efficiency, uninterrupted power supply, voltage support for electricity consumption, time-of-use pricing management, etc.
In addition to applications on large power grids, energy storage systems are irreplaceable in new energy access, distributed energy, and microgrids. Energy storage units can suppress disturbances in the system and output power, provide short-term transitional power supply, peak shaving and valley filling, maintain voltage and frequency stability, provide reliable backup power, and improve the reliability and flexibility of grid-connected operation.
The development of smart grid construction drives the growth of power monitoring instruments.
Power monitoring instruments are designed to meet the power monitoring needs of power systems, industrial and mining enterprises, public utilities, and intelligent buildings, measuring voltage, current, power, power factor, and electrical energy. With the development of science and technology, power monitoring instruments have been applied to all aspects of power systems, including generation, transmission, transformation, distribution, and consumption, enabling the measurement, metering, analysis, diagnosis, control, and protection of power grid parameters, and providing analog output and standard communication interfaces.
In the construction of smart grids, ensuring grid stability and security, maintaining power quality, and monitoring the environmental and operational status of transmission lines all rely heavily on power monitoring instruments. Power monitoring instruments are a new and niche sector within the electrical instrumentation industry, belonging to the category of installed digital instruments, evolved from analog pointer instruments and power transmitters. As an emerging industry, the market prospects for power monitoring instruments are driven by smart grid construction and the increasing demand for intelligent power distribution systems at the user end. Under the construction of smart grids, the market potential for power monitoring instruments is enormous.
The development of instruments and meters has further promoted the construction of smart grids.
The core of a smart grid lies in constructing an intelligent network system with intelligent judgment and adaptive adjustment capabilities, enabling unified grid connection and distributed management of multiple energy sources. This system allows for real-time monitoring and collection of power grid and user electricity consumption information, and employs relatively economical and secure transmission and distribution methods to deliver electricity to end users, thereby achieving the allocation and utilization of electrical energy and improving the reliability of grid operation and energy efficiency. Many core technologies in smart grid construction equipment are related to instrumentation. These are mainly reflected in the following aspects:
Firstly, there are electricity meters, power transmitters, and other similar devices. The core and essence of the smart grid require electrical instruments and meters, including electricity meters, power transmitters, indicating instruments, and various sampling devices, to develop towards multi-parameter intelligent information sampling terminals. These intelligent terminals will also have functions such as centralized information sampling, unified access, and distributed processing. At the same time, they can transmit, store, and display information on demand and have plug-and-play functionality.
Secondly, there are sensors. A sensor is a detection device that can sense the information being measured and transform the sensed information into electrical signals or other required forms of information output according to certain rules, so as to meet the requirements of information transmission, processing, storage, display, recording and control. In the construction of smart grids, sensors can detect problems such as electrical and non-electrical quantities.
Thirdly, electronic components. Electronic components are the constituent parts of electronic elements and small machines and instruments. They are often composed of several parts and can be used interchangeably in similar products. They often refer to certain parts in industries such as electrical appliances, radio, and instrumentation, and are a general term for electronic devices such as capacitors, transistors, hairsprings, and mainsprings. They are indispensable in the construction of smart grids. Therefore, the development of instrumentation plays an indispensable role in smart grids.
Conclusion
With the development of science and technology and the arrival of the intelligent era, power monitoring equipment is developing towards intelligence and digitalization. Applications such as energy management, the Internet of Things, and smart grids based on intelligent power meters will become the focus of future development, driving the continued rapid development of intelligent power monitoring instruments.
