Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/883062
UTILITY WEEK | 6TH - 12TH OCTOBER 2017 | 23 Operations & Assets Koss is unconvinced, believing some syn- chronous generation will need to stay on the grid to act as a pacemaker for the rest of the system. "We think National Grid should cre- ate a market for inertia. Given it is such a vital service, it would give the market more visibility and allow providers to price it into their running costs, in turn bringing down the costs of balancing services for consum- ers," he adds. Foy says the absence of predictable rev- enues for a whole range of ancillary ser- vices, including black start capability and frequency response, has now led to a situ- ation in which investment in dispatchable generation is determined largely on the basis of capital costs, with little regard for whole- system benefits. Hence the proliferation of reciprocating engines in the capacity market. If these revenues were safer or more pre- dictable, Koss says large gas plants would be able to bid into the capacity market at a lower price and finally find success. "Transparency, predictability and certainty is what's going to make the market work," he adds. He will have to pray that these pleas don't fall on deaf ears. Otherwise, Drax could once again find that the route ahead is blocked. ILLUSTRATION OF BALANCING TREND REACTIVE POWER REQUIREMENT PREDICTED ACTIONS BY NATIONAL GRID TO MAINTAIN SYSTEM INERTIA 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 -2,000 -4,000 -6,000 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Amount Reactive power absorption (Mva) Percentage of year 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 Need (solid blue = certain need. Faded blue = uncertain need) Reactive power absorption required Reactive power generation required Source: National Grid Most absorptive daily reactive power requirement RoCoF* too high, need to curtail multiple large losses including nuclear, or replace wind with synchronous plant RoCoF high, may need to curtail largest single loss No actions required to limit RoCoF Source: National Grid Source: National Grid *RoCoF = rate of change of frequency