Renewables support

Renewable Energy Sources (RES) create new management challenges for operators, strongly increasing the demand for extremely flexible balancing resources and new services.

Renewables Support is a key element of Ansaldo Energia’s holistic approach to transition, aimed at maintaining the balance of the energy system as well as at making existing investments future-proof.

Gas turbine plants can reduce the impact of increasingly large renewable energy shares by providing the grid with programmable power supply, system inertia and resilience to extreme conditions.

The combination of gas-fired and renewable generation with energy storage results in enhanced frequency regulation of the plant, instantaneous response time, primary and secondary control power and reserve capacity.

In addition, plant hybridization enables new business models that optimize both profitability and the revenue stream.

• Where ancillary service markets are in place, grid support services can be offered to network operators – such as frequency control, black start, active and reactive power regulation.
• Where wholesale electricity markets are in place, additional revenues can be raised with energy arbitrage – e.g. by storing off-peak electricity and selling it during peak hours, when demand is high and renewable generation is low.
• Where capacity market regulations are in place, gas-fired plants can profitably guarantee system operators a certain supply level for a predefined period of time – thus supporting system adequacy.

The optimal integration of gas-fired power plants with renewable energy requires the adoption of advanced digital systems, such as Ansaldo Energia’s Plant Integrator.