Simona Vasilica Oprea

Wind parks' operation in the context of system adequacy

From the experience of TSOs in whose systems are installed significant wind power, it appears that wind parks (WP) have technical and operational characteristics which significantly differs them from other types of power plants. WPs available power can vary between zero and installed power, depending entirely on meteorological factors and, in particular, on the wind speed. WP production can be predicted only within certain limits, which makes it necessary for TSO to balance in real time the differences between prognosis and actual production, which can be significant. Since the volume of installed power in WP for which are expressed intentions of connection, is much higher than the RTR in the National Energy System (NES), the RTR value is the power limiting criterion. Thus, according to the rules of ANRE, Transelectrica annually establishes the maximum installed power in WP, acceptable in terms of RTR availability existing in NES.

Protection relay settings management at Akdeniz DISCO through DIgSILENT StationWare

Number of setting values of relays has increased considerably with the replacement of electro-mechanical relays to digital relays recently. Moreover, increase in the number of distributed and renewable generators connected to distribution grids complicates the protection relay coordination process. Essentially, settings of protection devices should be managed more carefully than before in a systematical way. This paper presents the protection relay settings management at Akdeniz DISCO through DIgSILENT StationWare software platform. The platform is utilized to manage relay setting process beginning from the relay coordination analysis phase to final implementation phase on site. The software is configured to allow remote access to relay setting management platform by different level of users which have different level of permissions depending on their roles in the whole process.

Key Technical Performance Indicators for Power Plants

In this chapter, we will underline the importance of the key performance indicators (KPIs) computation for power plants’ management. The main scope of the KPIs is to continuously monitor and improve the business and technological processes. Such indicators show the efficiency of a process or a system in relation with norms, targets or plans. They usually provide investors and stakeholders a better image regarding location, equipment technology, layout and design, solar and wind exposure in case of renewable energy sources and maintenance strategies. We will present the most important KPIs such as energy performance index, compensated performance ratio, power performance index, yield, and performance, and we will compare these KPIs in terms of relevance and propose a set of new KPIs relevant for maintenance activities. We will also present a case study of a business intelligence (BI) dashboard developed for renewable power plant operation in order to analyze the KPIs. The BI solution contains a data level for data management, an analytical model with KPI framework and forecasting methods based on artificial neural networks (ANN) for estimating the generated energy from renewable energy sources and an interactive dashboard for advanced analytics and decision support.