Four major Japanese organisations (Hitachi, Hitachi Chemical Co, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and The Japan Research Institute) have announced that they have been selected by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO) to undertake a feasibility study for a smart grid demonstration project in Poland. Hitachi will handle overall co-ordination of the demonstration project in its role as research leader, and will participate along with the other three companies in the preliminary survey, which will run from February to November 2015. The demonstration project is scheduled to run for approximately three years, following a review of the screening committee about the results of this study.
The demonstration project is a joint project between Japan and Poland. It will receive support from the Polish government and include participation by local companies. The preliminary survey will include site selection as well as determining which Polish businesses will participate and the scope of each sub-project.
Poland is increasing its wind power generation capacity to meet its EU inspired target of supplying 15% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, and increasing this to 19% by 2030. Its installed capacity of wind power generation in 2013 was approximately 3.4 GW, roughly half the 2020 target of 6.6 GW. On the other hand, the country's electricity infrastructure is aging, with more than 50% of it having been constructed more than 40 years ago. Accordingly, it will be necessary to upgrade and enhance this infrastructure to cope with the additional load that the installation of a large amount of wind power generation will impact on the power grid.
The demonstration project aims to build grid stabilization control system (SPS) that can minimise capital investment in the electricity infrastructure and simultaneously maintain stable grid operation while expanding the use of renewable energy.
The currently planned activities and participants in the demonstration project are as follows.
- Demonstrate technology for keeping supply and demand in balance by connecting energy storage systems to the grid to curtail the output of wind power generation.
- Demonstrate grid stabilisation technology for preventing overloads on transmission lines.
- Demonstrate hybrid energy storage system using lithium-ion batteries that is designed for use with wind power generation.
- Study of business models for SPS and energy storage systems, their potential for further penetration storage systems, and the benefits of their use.
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