Addressing Energy Losses and Instability in the Electricity Grid: The Role of BESS Parks and Energy Communities
Energy loss in the power grid is a significant challenge for the energy industry:
During the transmission of electricity over long distances, some of it is dissipated as heat, causing inefficiencies and rising costs.
Innovative solutions such as energy storage parks using battery systems (BESS) and Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) community PV projects are emerging as effective ways to mitigate energy loss in the grid and avoid costly infrastructure upgrades. In this article, we will explore how BESS parks and Energy Communities help address this problem.
Energy losses in the power grid, what are they due to?
Energy loss in the grid refers to the dissipation of electricity during transmission and distribution. It occurs due to several factors, including resistance in power lines, reactive power losses, and inefficiencies in transformers and other grid components. These losses lead to increased energy consumption, higher greenhouse gas emissions, and financial burdens on utilities and consumers.
Case in point is the loss of energy over long distances in the “transmission grid.” It is inevitable, dictated by the Joule effect whereby a conductor crossed by a current will lose energy in the form of heat, in proportion to the product of its electrical resistance and the square of the intensity of the current flowing through it.
Remember the formula we were taught in school?
Pd = R x I2
Power dissipation serves us well when we turn on an electric heater to warm ourselves. Current flows through a coil (to increase the length of the conductor) of a well-strengthened material, it becomes incandescent and emits heat.
But the same law is a problem when we want to convey electricity over long distances, without it being wasted in heat loss!
The longer the route, the greater the resistance of the conductor. This is inevitable in a transmission network of hundreds of kilometers.
We can try to decrease the resistance R, and in fact have already been doing so for centuries. However, using better conductors has a major cost impact: copper and aluminum already have high costs, using more efficient (leaving aside weight and mechanical properties) silver and gold would be cost-prohibitive in wiring hundreds of kilometers of power lines.
Historically, how has the problem been addressed?
With a little ingenuity: the power produced and fed into the grid is equal to the product of the voltage difference times the current intensity.
The other formula they used to bedevil us with in school, Ohm’s law, many will remember:
P = V x I
Here “P” is the power fed by power plants into the grid, not the “power dissipated” of the Joule effect formula. Since the current “I” in the Joule effect weighs quadratically on the dissipated power, the solution was to decrease the current input as much as possible by increasing the voltage “V” proportionally.
This was done by switching to alternating current, where the use of transformers allows the voltage to be changed.
High-voltage lines were thus born. Instead of the 220 V (Volts) of the domestic system, we are talking about values around 400,000 V.
It did not stop there. It turns out that the use of three-phase alternating current can further halve the leakage, and requires less thick, cheaper cables.
Even with all these arrangements, electricity leakage can be 10-20% of the energy input.
It is then necessary to look for additional, new solutions.
BESS parks to reduce energy losses and save on grid interventions
The push for energy transition has led to the creation of large photovoltaic and wind farms, which, due to their intermittent nature, introduce grid instability, with large peaks of energy input which are not necessarily balanced in the hours of production by as much consumption.
Composed of large-scale battery energy storage systems, BESS parks play a crucial role in reducing energy loss in the grid.
BESS park, graphical representation
By absorbing peak generation, BESS parks reduce the need for infrastructure upgrades and save costly investments in upgrading the power grid.
They store excess electricity during periods of low demand and release it during peak periods, thereby optimizing energy flow and reducing stress on the grid. By injecting stored energy into the grid at appropriate times, BESS parks can help balance supply and demand, avoiding waste and mitigating energy losses.
How RECs can avoid grid overloads and energy losses
We have seen how one of the main causes of energy loss in the grid is leakage in the form of heat in long transmission lines.
What if we could reduce, if not completely avoid, the input of energy into the long high-voltage transmission lines?
Energy Community, graphic representation
Thus, the idea of Renewable Energy Communities, RECs, was born:
Producing electricity with renewable energy plants that are smaller in size, and closer to consumers.
The members of RECs are residents, businesses and institutions all served by the same “primary substation” – the transformer station that converts electricity from high to medium voltage, and vice versa – who have agreed to share the energy produced by renewable energy plants within the community.
With proper consumption planning, members joining ERCs can largely “self-consume” the energy produced within the community, thus preventing it from being fed into the transmission grid for transport over long distances.
This localized approach improves overall grid efficiency and reduces energy waste.
In addition, community PV projects foster community involvement and promote the adoption of renewable energy. Participants benefit from reduced energy costs, cleaner energy sources, and a sense of ownership in supporting sustainable practices. These projects enable communities to become active players in the energy transition while easing the load on the grid.
Conclusions
Electricity leakage in the grid leads to inefficiencies and rising costs and is an urgent challenge for the energy industry. The integration of innovative solutions such as BESS parks and Energy Communities offers significant benefits. Battery parks help optimize energy flow, reduce stress on the grid, and avoid costly infrastructure upgrades by storing and releasing electricity when needed. Community PV projects contribute to localized power generation and consumption, avoiding transmission losses.
By embracing these solutions, we can improve the efficiency and reliability of our energy systems, reduce environmental impacts, and create a more sustainable future.
Redelfi Group companies are prepared, with BESS park development projects and the offerings of subsidiary CerLab!
