UK research says intermittent renewables supply no big obstacle

London (Platts)--5Apr2006

Intermittency of supply is not as significant an obstacle to the
development of renewable sources of energy as previously thought, according to
a report released by the UK Energy Research Centre Wednesday.
The independent center, funded by three UK research councils, was based
its report on more than two hundred reports and studies from around the world.
"The output of wind, wave and other renewables fluctuates and cannot be
fully controlled," the report's chief author and head of UKERC's Technology
and Policy Assessment function, Robert Gross, said. "The extent to which this
is likely to create problems, costs or even lead to black outs is the subject
of a long running debate."
The report found that 100% "back up" for renewable sources was
unnecessary. Whilst extra capacity would be needed to keep supply
secure, intermittency costs would be only around 0.5-0.8 p/kWh of wind output,
if wind power supplied 20% of UK electricity, the report said.
A spokesman for National Grid concurred. "We don't think there
are any insurmountable technical problems to accommodating large
quantities of intermittent renewable sources on the system," he said, adding
that the figure of 20% of UK electricity would be within this range, but that
National Grid had not put any "upper bound" on their own assessment.
The intermittency costs given in the report would be added to wind
generating costs of around 3-5 p/kWh. According to the UKERC, the
impact on electricity consumers would be around 0.1 p/kWh, accounting
for only 1% of electricity costs in a typical tariff of 10-16 p/kWh.
The costs of intermittency are currently lower and will rise if the
use of renewables expands, UKERC said. But "wide geographical
dispersion and a diversity of renewable sources" would lessen these
costs.
Gross said the factors leading to costs rising could be quantified.
Although the output of renewables can be intermittent, "reports that suggest
it is highly costly, or restricts the role of renewables are out of step with
the majority of expert analysis, reflect regional problems that the UK can
avoid, or both," he said.
Commenting on the report, Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks repeated the
UK Government's commitment to have 10% of UK electricity produced by
renewable sources by 2010, and said that "a significant proportion of that
will come from wind power."
Wicks denied wind power was "excessively expensive, or that traditional
power stations are needed to back-up the energy produced by all our wind
farms." He said the UKERC study showed "these claims have been exaggerated."
The British Wind Energy Association said the report was the "most
comprehensive assessment of the evidence on intermittency ever
undertaken" and welcomed its findings.
Richard Ford, Head of Grid and Technical Affairs at BWEA, said the report
"puts the final nail in the coffin of the myth that wind cannot be integrated
onto our electricity network in significant quantities." He said he hoped the
report would be "used as a benchmark for future research and policy direction
on intermittency."


 

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