Wind power development requires intelligent control

16th January 2017

The expansion needs a far-sighted approach, as policy alone can hardly provide and pretend.

Expansion freeze in the north it doesn’t need it.  The intelligent use, control and steering of energy is all the more important since the day on which Germany is able to be supplied with electrical energy completely through renewables.

Transport and supra-regional distribution is not the only way to dismantle the energy reserves in the north. Energy conversion, additional consumers and storage help to realize value added meaningfully.

The initiative can be managed by end users just as much as by energy companies. If electrical energy is available in excess in the region, then it is close to the heat demand as well as the energy demand for traffic to be covered electrically locally. The electrode heating boiler of the Stadtwerke Flensburg is a good example of the fact that modern cogeneration helps to use the wind power on site and to a considerable and efficient extent.

If the legislature wants small consumers to do the same, a smart use of the distribution network and its development is a cost-effective basis. The industry speaks of the sectoral coupling. An example of this is an increase in heat pumps, electrode thermal storage heating and a pilot region for comprehensive electrical traffic. Technically, these forms of storage and conversion work already today with acceptable conversion losses. Are such applications not much expensive and the infrastructure is missing? Partially still. Developments take time. Waiting will lead to a reduction of chances others will seize. Cost degression with increasing numbers of units belongs to the ecological energy revolution.

The ‘increase the value of the electricity’ by providing expensive control and reactive energy was previously reserved for the conventional power generation of large power plants. Combined pitch-controlled wind turbines can supply now as well and this performance is predictable. No one would have trusted this industry’s ability 20 years ago.

Smart energy control takes place at all levels of the control system, from the producer to the consumer. This does not need an overall perfect plan. Decentralized individual controls extend the utilization of the Smart Grid, the home environment or even of virtual power plants. However, signals are lacking in the network that help us to move from a pure load control to a value control. Energy trading places should be linked to the doorstep of consumers.

Seen from a distance, this regional prosperity will certainly be appreciated more and more as a welcome support in the supraregional transport network. The development of the wind power is about the regulation of a wealth that the windy regions have simple and can now be easily lifted.

For policy, it means a holistic weighing and planning of joint action to enable especially self-regulation.