A new project to mitigate curtailment in commercial scale wind turbines, which aims to divert unused renewable energy into affordable heat, has been launched by Heat Smart Orkney Ltd. HSO is a subsidiary of Rousay Egilsay & Wyre Development Trust, and the company that will co-ordinate the community engagement of the Heat Smart Orkney project, whilst project delivery partners Community Energy Scotland will support the delivery of the project as well as engaging with technical and installation contractors. The Heat Smart Orkney project had been funded by the Scottish Government’s Local Energy Challenge Fund, administered by Local Energy Scotland, which awarded just under £1.3 million for the project in March this year. Michelle Koster, Project Manager, said: “It seemed untenable that renewable energy generators are being curtailed due to the constraints on the distribution of electricity around the Orkney grid, whilst fuel poverty levels are at 63% for all households in Orkney” “We know there is excellent work going on with organisations in Orkney addressing insulation and energy efficiency across our homes, but this is of limited reach and even a super-insulated property still needs an affordable energy source to provide heat in the home.” The Heat Smart Orkney project will provide a demand-side management solution by installing secondary heating systems into local homes willing to participate. These secondary heating systems will be charged when the participating turbine suffers ‘marginal’ curtailment. In its simplest form, when the participating turbine receives a curtailment signal as the marginal generator, the Heat Smart Orkney system will switch on secondary heating systems installed in local homes, charging storage heaters, or storing energy in wet radiator systems or thermal stores by heating the water. By doing this, the installations provide a new intelligent demand on the grid that utilises the linked turbine’s generation prior to it reaching grid pinch-points at times when the turbine would otherwise be curtailed to protect the grid.
Scottish Energy News 7th Nov 2016 read more »