Labels

Total Pageviews

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Energy management system for Nepal energy crisis

Ramhari Poudyal

“To make an energy fix, we need an energy mix.”
-       BP Slogan

The sustainable and efficient use of energy poses many challenges for the future. Pioneering strategies and innovative solutions for energy generation pave the way for an intelligent power supply.
Microgrids have received increasing attention as a means of integrating distributed generation such as Combined Heat and Power (CHP) into the electricity network. Usually described as confined clusters of loads, storage devices and small generators (< 500kW), these autonomous networks connect as single entities to the public distribution grid [1] [2] [3].

Furthermore, Microgrid and renewable energy sources are cost effective resources in order to satisfy increasing demand to sustainable development. Regulatory issues for microgrid and renewable energy sources may to be accelerated and simplified in countries in order to attract investors. But those issues don’t mistake the required security and quality levels.
Moreover, Microgrid and renewable energy sources are best solutions for actual cost energy scenarios, specially. But some barriers must be removed to become effective these resources. In order to contribute to minimize these barriers, cost/return must be understanding by potential investors. This is part of challengers to meet.

In addition, Energy management system (EMS) utilizes information flow to control power flow in order to balance and optimize the power flow every moment and place. Conventionally, the EMS is centralized one. However, the architecture of future EMS is distributed & autonomous, interactive & coordinated. A new concept and architecture of future EMS for smart grids, i.e. EMS family, are proposed. Some new members of EMS family are introduced for autonomous and fast energy management of smart grids, for example, substation EMS, wind farm EMS and electric vehicle (EV) EMS. Interaction among EMS family members is introduced to do coordinated control in order to accumulating large-scale renewable energy as much as possible and to enhance entire grid security, which forms an EMS family network, for example, interaction between transmission and distribution grids, interaction between substation and control centre, interaction between wind and EV [4].
A simple Energy Management system model for ISO 50001 can be seen below:


Ø  More efficient energy use

Ø  Increased use of embedded renewable energy
Ø  Increased energy exchange with the rest of society
Energy consumption has become a key metric for companies. Saving energy is saving operational costs. Energy consumption also implies reducing greenhouse gas emission and demonstrating greater care for natural resources.
Three major challenges are faced in smart grid development in the world. One is how to integrate large-scale intermittent character of renewable energy into power grids. Most of the wind power bases are far away from the load centers in Nepal. World Bank tried to find wind energy potential in Manag and Mustang districts of Nepal. They found 3,000 MWpotential however, that places wind intensity at 11 am to 4 pm only but in a nationwide evening 6 pm to 9 pm has peak load, that’s why government official didn’t give much attention to that project. However, Wind projects are relatively quick to install and takes much less space than large solar arrays. If there is road access, equipment, and no political obstructions, a 100MW wind farm can be built within six months. Our primary concern would be road access to wind sites since bigger turbines mean cheaper cost of electricity generation.

That’s why it is necessary to directly integrate wind power into the transmission grids as large –scale wind farms. How to operate a large power grid with high penetration of intermittent wind power is a big challenge for research engineers. Several important tasks in grid operation with large-scale wind power include active power, frequency control, reactive/ voltage control.

Solar and Wind Price in $ Million/Megawatts 2010 - 2016
Source: Bloomberg Energy Finance


PV solar panels are the safest and effective way of producing electricity. Solar technology doesn’t burn any fossil fuels, doesn’t create greenhouse effect and toxic air. This is clean, copious, silent, cheap, and scalable from small rooftop to large utility – scale power plants, and one of the most environmental friendly and efficient methods in terms of generated power per unit area used.
Solar radiation of Nepal is 3.6 – 6.2 KWh/m2/day, 300 days sunny, Average sunshine day 6.8Hours/day.
Today more than ever, effective energy management is a crucial issue for the success of any business. For many, the answer is an Energy Management System (EnMS) – a framework for the systematic management of energy. As well as enhancing energy efficiency, an EnMS can cut costs and reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission providing you with a competitive advantage. BS EN 16001 represents the latest best practice in energy management system building upon existing national standards and initiatives. The standard specifies the requirements for an EnMS to enable your organization to develop and implement a policy, identify significant areas of energy consumption and target energy reductions rite your thoughts.
Development and deployment of renewable energy resources; solar, wind, micro-hydro, biomass etc. should be added immediately for better energy mix that helps to end energy crisis. We shouldn’t be dependent solely in one source of energy like hydropower. IEA estimates that to achieve that Universal electrification objective by 2030, grid extension will be 30% and 70 % will be mini-grids or off grid system. 6.6 million people have no electricity in Nepal however, Country’s medium term ambition is to become a middle – income nation by 2030, while graduating out of the least developed country (LDC) status by 2022.

REFERENCES
[1] C. Marnay, A. S. Siddiqui, and F. J. Rubio, “Shape of the microgrid,” Proc. IEEE Power Engineering Society Winter Meeting, Columbus, pp. 150–153, Jan/Feb 2001.
[2] S. Abu-Sharkh, “Can microgrids make a major contribution to the uk energy supply,” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 78–127, April 2006.
[3] R. H. Lasseter, “Microgrids,” Proceedings of the IEEE Power Engineering Society Winter Meeting, vol. 1, pp. 305–308, Jan. 2002.
[4] Hongbin Sun, “Family of Energy Management System for Smart Grid,” IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Europe (ISGT Europe), Berlin 2012