""Brad Williams of PacifiCorp reported on the ongoing
development and success of the Castle Valley VRB energy storage system (VRB-ESS), a 350-kVA, 250-kW, 8-hour system located on the Utah Power grid. Built in order to defer a $5 million transmission line through an environmentally sensitive area, the VRB-ESS enabled
PacifiCorp to avoid a lengthy permitting process that was expected to take as long as five years. The system has been operational for a year and a half, and has fully met the peak load constraint problems that previously plagued the Castle Valley area. Mr. Williams reported that feeder deviations
have improved and that line losses have been reduced by approximately
40 kW. Customer
response
has also been favorable. Several upgrades
have been performed to assure the reliability of the system, and software enhancements are underway to maximize efficiency, automatically peak shave during summer and winter high demand periods, and provide continuous, integrated volt/var control. PacifiCorp is also considering
other applications for the VRB technology.Growing Wind Capacity Provides OpportunitiesGentaro Koshimizu of Electric Power Development Co. reported on the January 2005 commissioning of a 4-MW, 6-MVA, 1.5-hour VRB system in Japan, used for wind stabilization. Installation of wind power in one area of the country has been limited due to frequency instability
problems associated with intermittent wind. In order to break through this limitation and increase wind capacity in Japan, the New Energy and Industrial Technology
Development Organization (NEDO) has funded the use of an energy storage system coupled to a large scale (19-turbine) wind farm on the island of Hokkaido. A Vanadium Redox Battery Energy Storage System (VRB-ESS) was installed at Tomamae Wind Villa farmand began operation in early 2005. The 4,000- kW/90- minute or 6,000-kW/20-minute system will operate
until 2008 while engineers refine the control system software to reduce the battery rating while maximizing the efficiency of the system.""
electricitystorage.org |
