Spelplanen för energiproducenter kommer inom de kommande årtionden förändras och företagen kommer ställas inför stora utmaningar. Kärnkraften kommer att fasas bort till 2040 enligt ett Regeringsbeslut, något som kommer kräva en utbyggnad av de förnyelsebara energikällorna som vind- och solkraft. Det är energikällor som har betydligt större variation där väder påverkar produktionen samtidigt som det är svårt att planera och prognostisera. Det kan således tillkomma och falla bort elproduktion på nätet under kort tid om det som exempel skulle sluta blåsa under en timme. Ett fungerande elsystem bygger på att det alltid ska finnas en balans mellan elproduktion och elanvändning. Denna balans mäts i frekvens på elnätet och Norden har en nominell frekvens på 50,0Hz, något som påverkas av ett underskott eller överskott av antingen produktion eller konsumtion. En utbyggnad i vind- och solkraft kan således ställa högre krav på vattenkraften som med sin goda planeringsförmåga fungerar utmärkt som frekvensreglerande kraftkälla. Inom vattenkraftsproduktion finns det två produktkategorier som energiproducenter kan sälja sin producerade el som normal drift och frekvensreglering, där den förstnämna är den som majoriteten av intäkterna står för. Eftersom det finns stora kostnader relaterade till slitage som uppstår i en turbin vid drift är det i Skellefteå Krafts intresse att studera de kostnader som är orsakade av frekvensreglering. För detta har olika utjämningsfunktioner utnyttjats för att klassificera data som antingen normal drift eller frekvensreglering, för att sedan beräkna vad frekvensregleringen motsvarar i slitage på ett aggregat. Skellefteå Kraft har i Augusti 2019 implementerat ett system som lagrar driftdata. Då en förväntad livslängd av en kaplanturbin är mellan 40 och 50 år krävdes det då mer data för att kunna dra rimliga slutsatser. Eftersom en begränsning finns gällande mängden av data, används omsamplinstekniken Block bootstrap för simulering av driftdata, vilket är nödvändigt för att kunna utföra en livslängdsanalys. Slutsatsen var att trots att frekvensreglering stod för drygt 95% av slitaget stod det endast för 8-9% av intäkterna, men att det ändå hade en vinstmarginal på 2-3 gånger kostnaden. En livslängdssimulering på 40 år medförde ett slitage på drygt 420 mikrometer för det Yttre löpskoveltappslagret (det lager som slits mest), vilket ligger inom rimligt slitage med hänsyn till designvärdet.

The increase of variable renewable source leads to an imbalance between the electricity supply and demand of the power grid, as the solar and wind energy production is weather dependent. By implementing battery energy storage system (BESS), the balance can be improved by storing energy when the supply is high and then use when the supply is low. The aim of this study is to investigate the profitability of implementing a BESS with a photovoltaic plant to the grid connected facility of Gävle Energi AB. This by mapping the potential revenues that can benefit both the property and power grid. The aim is also to investigate the cost saving of a BESS with an optimal control and then look at the sizing of the battery.   At the Swedish battery market there is two technologies, lithium ion and nickelmetal hybrid, both of which have different characteristics that affect its service life. The battery life is affected by its chemistry, state of charge, depth of discharge, charge rate, temperature, and operating conditions. One of the revenues with BESS are to take advantage of the price difference and charge the battery when the electricity price is low and discharge when it is high. The revenue is also to increase the self-use of solar power to the facility, peak shaving, and frequency control. You can also use the BESS as an emergency power due to its fast output power. The simulation was built in the program Excel containing eight different tasks, all with different battery sizes. Each task contained four control models; increase selfuse of solar power, peak shaving, frequency control and a combination of the three. This with input data from both 2018 and 2019.  The result showed that the best savings in all tasks occurred with the frequency control model or the combination model. The size of battery depends on the service life. The battery lift is hard to predict and thus also the choice of battery size. As the control model affects the battery life, the ideal battery life of 20 years can be difficult to achieve. Therefore, a BESS of 100 kWh may be recommended. Except as a property revenue, the BESS may reduce some percentage of marginal electricity and thus also the carbon dioxide emissions and may also support the power grid with frequency control.

The Nordic synchronous power system must continuously be in balance with respect to the electricity produced and consumed to function optimally. The system frequency is a good measure of the actual balance. The Swedish Transmission System Operator, Svenska kraftnät (Svk), is responsible for making sure such a balance is achieved. This study was conducted with the overall aim of investigating how Svk works in practice to balance the Nordic synchronous power system. This includes describing the main aspect of the power system structure, the existing methods regarding automatic and manual frequency control, the main operating systems as well as the tools and methods used by Svk. The study also examines how operational plans and forecasts available through the Nordic Operational Information System (NOIS) can be used to predict at what operational situations the risk of unwanted frequency deviations will be higher than normal. Furthermore, the study also investigates the possibility to conduct frequency regulation in a proactive manner based on these correlations. This was accomplished mainly through a literature review and interviews. The results shows that frequency deviations where the frequency is outside the interval 49.9–50.1 Hz often occur in correlation with the specific time at which the planned system balance quickly changes. Frequency simulations show that proactive regulation, which aims to reduce the planned imbalance, appears to also reduce frequency deviations. Further studies should however be conducted to study such frequency correlations in depth, and to investigate how proactive regulatory practices can be implemented in the most optimal manner.

The increasing amount of renewable energy in the power system have led to new challenges to balance supply and demand in the electric grid. To maintain the balance in the power system the system operator can activate power reserves to restore the balance at a frequency deviation. Today these reserves consist exclusively of hydropower in Sweden. With more volatile power generation new types of technologies to provide these reserves are desirable. The aim of this master thesis is to investigate the technical potential for using wind power, demand response and energy storage for automatic frequency control in the Swedish power system. The thesis examines the performance of the different technologies to see if they meet the technical requirements for delivering reserves set by the TSO. Moreover, the available capacity from the technologies throughout the year are estimated. The results show that all three technologies potentially could be used for frequency control. However, the technical requirements are not always fulfilled. In order to enable new technologies to provide power reserves some of the requirements needs to be modernized. Generally, demand response proved to have the largest available capacity for frequency control today. The study shows that demand response from industries and electric heated households could potentially provide all automatic frequency control. Modern wind turbines can be used for frequency control and for down regulation of the frequency the potential is considerable. Energy storages are not yet widely used in Sweden but with reduced costs they can play an important role in regulating the frequency in the future.

The installed capacity of electricity produced from solar power has increased over the years and will do so even further. A lot of companies are investing in so-called solar parks to create large scale electricity production from solar power. With intermittent energy sources such as solar power comes challenges for the electricity net where storage systems can play an important role to handle these challenges. Storage systems connected to renewable energy can also be a way to increase the economic benefits of a system.  This study investigates whether a lithium-ion battery system connected to a solar park is economically profitable, and in that case under which circumstances. This is done by focusing on a solar park in Uppsala, Sweden, owned by Vasakronan AB. Different grid-connected services provided by the battery that could generate income were identified and chosen for the study which were arbitrage, a local flexibility market and frequency regulation. The usage of the battery for each and a combination of these services were modelled and simulated in Matlab (2020). Each individual case was created as its own model for three different battery capacities (2, 4 & 8 MWh). To investigate whether a case was profitable or not, the internal rate was calculated for each model. This was also done for a longer lifetime of the battery and for lower investment costs as a sensitivity analysis. The results show that a system of this kind is only profitable for one case which is if a 2 MWh battery is used for the frequency regulation services FFR and FCR-D. This results in an internal rate of 6% which is higher than the rate of return of 5% that Vasakronan requires. The conclusions of the study is that it is difficult to make an investment in a battery system that is only charged from a solar park profitable.

Increased use of variable energy and integration of electricity markets in the European Union have led to new challenges when balancing supply and demand in the grid. Load management is a possible way to manage these challenges by adjusting electricity consumption in order to balance the power system. Household appliances can be used for this purpose, for example by providing automatic frequency control. The aim of this master thesis is to investigate the potential of load management from private households and to examine how the power system is affected by a more flexible electricity consumption. The thesis focuses on fridges as automatic frequency control reserves and the ability of fridges to balance the power system. Attributes such as capacity, activation time, persistence and the effect of load reconnection has been modelled in Simulink, Matlab. Complementary interviews with actors from the electricity industry have been done to summarize their insights on demand response. The results indicate that fridges can be used as a part of the automatic frequency controlled reserve FCR-N, based on assumptions made in this study. However, current requirements imposed on balancing resources are not fully met by the fridges. In order for household appliances to provide the needed flexibility, some requirements might need to be rephrased. The results also show that the capacity for providing balancing services differs for positive and negative imbalances, as consumption can be reduced with 30 MW and increased with 66 MW. When controlling the fridges by moving the reference temperature, there is a risk that the appliances will synchronize with each other, i.e. reconnect or disconnect at the same time, resulting in frequency oscillations. It is therefore important that load management is designed to avoid this kind of behavior.

Increased use of variable energy and integration of electricity markets in the European Union have led to new challenges when balancing supply and demand in the grid. Load management is a possible way to manage these challenges by adjusting electricity consumption in order to balance the power system. Household appliances can be used for this purpose, for example by providing automatic frequency control. The aim of this master thesis is to investigate the potential of load management from private households and to examine how the power system is affected by a more flexible electricity consumption. The thesis focuses on fridges as automatic frequency control reserves and the ability of fridges to balance the power system. Attributes such as capacity, activation time, persistence and the effect of load reconnection has been modelled in Simulink, Matlab. Complementary interviews with actors from the electricity industry have been done to summarize their insights on demand response. The results indicate that fridges can be used as a part of the automatic frequency controlled reserve FCR-N, based on assumptions made in this study. However, current requirements imposed on balancing resources are not fully met by the fridges. In order for household appliances to provide the needed flexibility, some requirements might need to be rephrased. The results also show that the capacity for providing balancing services differs for positive and negative imbalances, as consumption can be reduced with 30 MW and increased with 66 MW. When controlling the fridges by moving the reference temperature, there is a risk that the appliances will synchronize with each other, i.e. reconnect or disconnect at the same time, resulting in frequency oscillations. It is therefore important that load management is designed to avoid this kind of behavior.

As a consequence of increasing wind power installations in the Nordic grid the last years, the need for regulating power has become larger. In the Nordic grid, regulating power is mainly provided by hydro power. One part of the regulating power is called frequency control, which ensures that the grid frequency is stable and close to 50 Hz. However, setting the turbine into frequency controlled operation may cause stress and wear of the components in the mechanical control system. Frequency controlling implies large and frequent servo forces and longer travelling distance of the sliding bearings in the Kaplan turbine. Based on one selected Kaplan turbine, Selsfors G1, measurements and MATLAB calculations have been performed in order to determine forces and movements of the linkage system. With these forces and movements as input, stresses and fatigue have been determined as well as sliding distances, bearing pressures and wear of bearings during a typical lifetime of 40 years. The results indicate that no severe wear exists on the bearings during 40 years of service. This is valid for Selsfors G1, where self-lubricating greaseless Orkot bearings are installed. The wear is much smaller than the largest allowed bearing clearance, as long as the bearings are mounted correctly and free from dirt and oil. For turbines with grease or oil lubricated bearings, the result might differ. The highest average stresses have been recorded in the links in the runner. A very simple Finite Element Analysis has been made for the links, to estimate risk of fatigue. The stresses are much lower compared to the fatigue limit, and thus the risk of fatigue is considered very small. In situations where wear and large load changes after all are problems, a change in the turbine regulator settings is recommended. A dead band reduces the sliding distances of the bearings and the amount of load changes remarkably, but causes on the other hand lower turbine efficiency and worse quality of the frequency control.

Elnätet är ett komplext och viktigt system som konstruerats som en av de mest imponerande bedrifterna under ingenjörskonstens moderna tid. Det överför elektrisk energi till otaliga byggnader, industrier, skolor och hem. Och alltsammans sker konstant, varje minut av varje dag, året runt.  Grundbulten i systemet är den att en ständig balans måste råda mellan produktion och förbrukning av elektricitet. Vid obalans riskerar nämligen strömavbrott och andra oönskade företeelser att inträffa. Huruvida produktion och förbrukning av elektricitet är i nivå kan beskrivas av elnätets frekvens. Genom att övervaka elnätsfrekvensens beteende fås en överskådlig bild av elnätets status i realtid samtidigt som stödtjänster kan implementeras proaktivt för att motverka eventuella störningar. Tidigare har dessa stödtjänster främst representerats av stora aktörer såsom vattenkraftsanläggningar med enorma förutsättningar för att agera som reglerkraft. I takt med en omställning till en alltmer förnybar energipalett ökar dock behovet av ny reglerkraft. Samtidigt syns ett accelererande av installering av batterilager i bostadsrättsföreningar som energieffektiviserar. Eventuellt finns här en outforskad potential. Möjligen kan batterilager i flerbostadshus utnyttjas för frekvensreglering som en ytterligare balanskraft för elnätet. Projektarbetet syftade till att utreda potentialen kring batteristyrd mFRR-reglering från flerbostadshus. För att utvärdera den eventuella lönsamheten modellerades batteristyrningen i MATLAB. Modellen baserades främst på historiska data för upp- och nedregleringsbud från Nord Pool. I och med kravet på 1 MWh som minsta budstorlek på marknaden gjordes antagandet att vid varje regleringstillfälle reglerar batterilagret i aggregation med andra batterilager som tillsammans täcker den totala kapaciteten på 1 MWh. Modellen fungerar på så sätt att varje uppreglering föranleds av en uppladdning av batterilagret via antingen nedreglering eller spotpriser. Beroende på vilket alternativ som är mest lönsamt. Vidare gjordes antagandet att inga uppregleringsbud sker i två påföljande timmar.  Studiens mest lönsamma resultat genererades då batterilagret modellerades för att anta ett uppregleringsbud per dygn med det extra villkoret att samtliga bud som understiger 300 SEK/MWh förkastas. Vid dessa kriterium erhölls ett positivt årligt resultat om 149 100 kr från 306 battericykler.  Med endast frekvensreglering som användningsområde för batterilagret konkluderade dock studien att, det positiva resultatet till trots, ingen lönsamhet kunde uppnås. Investeringskostnaden är nämligen ännu för hög. Å andra sidan tyder teknologiska framsteg inom batterisektorn på en avtagande kostnadsutveckling. Vid år 2030 väntas nämligen priset för batterilager vara 225 USD/kWh, vilket skulle förbättra resultaten från denna rapport. / The electricity grid is a exceptionally sophisticated and crucial system which was created as one of the most impressive accomplishments in modern engineering. It transmits electrical energy to innumerable buildings, factories, schools and homes. And it can never stop. The system relies on the constant balance between generated and consumed electricity. Should an imbalance occur, it might give rise to power outages or failures in appliances on the grid. Whether or not generated and consumed electricity is at balance is determined by the grid frequency. By surveilling how the grid frequency behaves, an overview of the complete system can be obtained in real time. This is useful when it comes to deciding on whether or not to implement supporting mechanisms to counteract disturbances. The supporting mechanisms were historically represented by large facilities such as water power plants who possess great abilities of regulating the power balance on the grid. With the ongoing switch to renewables the need for more regulating power increases. At the same time installments of battery storage in energy efficient housing can be seen as accelerating. Here might be an untapped potential. What if battery storage in residential properties were utilized for frequency regulation as an additional balancing tool for the grid? The intent with this report was to outline the potential regarding power regulating via battery storages in multifamily residentials. In order to evaluate whether or not any profit could be redeemed, a battery control model was developed in MATLAB. The model was primarily based on historic data for regulating bids from Nord Pool. Since requirements on the market states that the lowest bid needs to be at least 1 MWh, the assumption was made that at every regulating occasion the battery regulates in aggregation with more batteries for a total capacity of 1 MWh. The objective of the model is to charge the battery using either spot price or down-regulating bids. Thereafter, an up-regulating bid is chosen. The assumption was made that no subsequent up-regulating bids were chosen. The most profitable optimization of the model was generated when 1 up-regulating bid was chosen per day with the additional condition that all bids under 300 SEK/MWh were rejected. At these criteria a yearly positive result of 149 100 kr was generated from 306 battery cycles. With frequency regulation as sole application for the battery storage, the study concluded that the model was not profitable. The cost of investment is yet too high. On the other hand, technological improvements will surely amount to declining prices. By year 2030 the price of battery storage may have fallen to 225 USD/kWh, which would improve the results in this study.

Variable renewable energy sources are today increasingly integrated in the power system as a step towards the renewable society. The large-scale introduction of converter-based energy sources brings challenges in terms of reduced damping to the power system due to the reduced number of synchronous generators. This can be manifested as high rate-of-change-of-frequency and decreased grid stability. To forestall this reduced performance, it is suggested that the grid-following control of today’s converters are restructured to a grid-forming control, enabling the converter to behave closer to a synchronous machine.   This thesis compares grid-following and grid-forming control and seeks to further describe this grid-forming behavior by applying a grid-forming control method on an energy storage enhanced STATCOM-system. A continuous time model and a linearized model based on state space representations are constructed in order to investigate the grid-forming behavior but also how the converter stability is affected by a restructure from grid-following to grid-forming control.   The results indicate that the investigated grid-forming control method displays a behavior similar to synchronous machines and incorporates the ability to provide frequency response services and so called “synthetic inertia” to the grid.  The results also show that the stability of the converter (the ability to provide a bounded output when the system is perturbed) is ensured when the control method is restructured from grid-following to grid-forming and that the investigated grid-forming method is stable also in weak grid situations.