“We will take care of the carefree rapid growth of solar power plants in Slovenia, “assures the director of NGEN Roman Bernard. What does he mean?
Electricity production in solar power plants fluctuates. They do not yet represent a large share of photovoltaics in the Slovenian network, but their number has begun to grow rapidly. Last year, almost one hundred megawatts of photovoltaic power plants were installed, with a total installed capacity approaching 500 megawatts. Growth is forecasted to be similar this year and in the years to come.
Fluctuations in electricity production are regulated by the services of NGEN from Žirovnica. About 250 household and business customers have been included in the portfolio so far. Among them are about a hundred such households that have a solar power plant and a battery, but also use electricity from the grid and receive an award for cooperation with NGEN. In the language of the energy regulator, the award would be described as an opportunity to take advantage of a dynamic tariff. This means that electricity is taken from the grid when electricity production is high and its price is low. For example, when the wind is strong in Germany, the price of electricity falls, and NGEN allows customers to use electricity to charge the storage tank or to operate the electric heater and other devices that it makes sense to turn on or reset. For example a heat pump.
“The vast majority of modern heat pumps have the function of smart grid contact or contact with the smart grid”, explains Bernard. If this function is activated, the heat pump warms up. More heat accumulates in her storage room, while the temperature in the apartment does not change. The household members of the NGEN Group are united in the energy community. Energy flows in the community can also be monitored online: production in solar power plants, consumption in houses and the flow of energy into the storage and network, or consumption from the network and storage.
The NGEN portfolio also includes households that do not have a solar power plant, storage tank or heat pump. Also included are households connected to the RES community, in which residents of multi-apartment buildings who do not have a suitable roof participate. The joint solar power plant is therefore placed on another building, usually in the area of the same transformer station. NGEN is also preparing a service for such residents. One idea is to set up a community storage facility. It is optimal if the storage tank is placed inside a closed system, such as a transformer station or house. They are in talks with some electricity distribution companies to start such projects in the area of the transformer station. This is not possible everywhere, but NGEN will eventually be able to offer the residents of the blocks energy storage within its portfolio, which will reach a sufficient capacity in two years.
NGEN also places the solar power plants, batteries and other equipment. They have a group of ten installers, and they also work with external partners, because NGEN’s basic task is to integrate different stakeholders, not to build power plants, Bernard explains. However, household customers cannot participate in the systemic primary regulation service provided by NGEN for ELES. They include large storage facilities in such a service because they need to have the capacity to consume or power the network at all times. Capacities are activated in the event of major fluctuations, such as the failure of a large power plant, to stabilize the power system.
By Borut Hočevar. The complete article in Slovene is available in Finance.