With “scissors” RES production which, depending on weather conditions, can reach up to 50%, the “knife” of electricity imports and additional emergency measures to be sought at tomorrow’s meeting Crisis Management Committee convened by the RAE, the competent authorities will try to prevent the high risk of power outages on Easter Sunday and Monday.

Although this risk has traditionally come from the inability of production to meet demand mainly during periods of prolonged heat waves, and the countermeasure has been predominantly alternating interruptions in consumption, the problem in the last two years associated with an increase in the penetration of scattered and unsustainable RES production also occurs during periods of low demand. such as the current one, when system stability management is a daily exercise for ADMI.

When the sun goes down…

“Loads are covered in the amount of 60% and 70% by renewable energy, there is little space left in the system for conventional units, and when suddenly, at sunset, production photovoltaics It is not easy to increase the production of conventional units an hour before balancing, as a result of which you risk disconnecting at any time, the responsible persons of ADMIE explain.

“If we have five winds on the Beaufort scale and the sun, we will have to cut 50% of the renewable energy production.”

They even report that the system was very close to shutting down on March 25, a holiday with low load and high solar output due to sunlight, and was kept alive for several hours by reducing renewables production. This risk is assessed by ADMIE as even higher during the Easter days as consumption is already at a low level and is expected to “fall” based on historical forecasts for this period. “If we have five winds on the Beaufort scale and the sun, renewable energy generation can reach 5,000 megawatts, and the load will be no more than 2,000 megawatts. In this case, we would have to reduce the production of RES by 50% in order to avoid power outages,” informs “K” the responsible official of ADMIE. Another measure under consideration is the reduction in imports, which was implemented in the previous days in order to stabilize the system in Northern Greece. From Veria to Thrace, including Thessaloniki, scattered PV production was so high and consumption so low that the system only covered 50 megawatts and it was necessary to cut imports by a few hours to avoid blackouts, they report from ADMIE describes the unprecedented situation. with which they have to deal every day during this period.

Batteries required

Like “the problem is here to stay” describes in “K” management of large penetration of RES without a storage tool and RAE President Athanasios Dagoumas, and points to the need to speed up the installation of batteries in the system. Without storage, the energy produced must be consumed for stability. Renewable energy production is dependent on weather conditions, with the result that when it is windy and sunny and consumption is low, there is a surplus of energy. Since, of course, you cannot tell consumers to increase consumption, contrary to calls for reduction, when production is limited, a reduction in the production of RES is inevitable for the stability of the system, emphasizes the responsible ADMIE officer, pointing out the possibility of the Greek system of acceptance of RES is not infinite and in terms of management, the situation has reached its limit.

According to ADMIE, the combination of high RES production and low consumption has halved the load on the system from historically low levels. “From 1100 megawatts covered last year by a sunny day in conventional units, this year we have reached 500 megawatts. And while you don’t need them now, on a hot summer evening you need them all to keep up with demand. The system can’t work like that. We need flexible units to be able to cover the range of fluctuations in production due to the stochastic nature of RES,” emphasizes ADMIE.

At tomorrow’s meeting, ADMIE and DEDDIE will determine the critical hours for the Easter days, as well as how much production each can cut to keep the system running while all other measures are considered.