Sector Coupling Plants

Due to the lag of a sufficient number of storages, the generation has to follow the load in an electric power system minute by minute. In addition to the fluctuating behaviour of the load, depending on the consumers needs, meanwhile also an increasing portion of highly fluctuating generation from photovoltaic and wind energy will be connected to the power system. Unfortunately the stochastic of the load and the renewable generation will not fit together, so a supply system with a large content of photovoltaic and wind energy always has to deal with time of renewable underproduction and renewable overproduction. Underproduction always can be compensated by additional conventional generation. In times of renewable overproduction, this surplus either have to stored in extremely large storages, have to switched of or can be converted into other energy sectors, e.g. heat or gas. So several systems for power-to-heat, power-to-gas (electrolysers) and power-to-vehicle (grid controlled charging of e-cars) are under investigation and will be visible more and more in the power system. The pictures aside will show you an outline of such a hybrid power plant with renewable generation, electrolysers and/or methanizers, gas storages and an option for re-generation of the “green hydrogen or gas”. BTU also worked on such a project together with some companies in the Brandenburg region. Also on the right side, you can see an 2 MW electrolyser system installed in the north west of Brandenburg.