Tom Cronin

Application genetic algorithms for load management in refrigerated warehouses with wind power penetration

Wind energy is produced at random times, whereas the energy consumption pattern shows distinct demand peaks during day-time and low levels during the night. The use of a refrigerated warehouse as a giant battery for wind energy is a new possibility that is being studied for wind energy integration as well as a way to store electricity produced during night-time by wind turbines. The controller for load management in a refrigerated warehouse with wind power penetration by GA-based is introduced in this paper. The objective function is to minimize the energy consumption for operating the refrigerated warehouse. It can be seen that the GA-based control strategy achieves feasible results for operating the temperature in refrigerated warehouse. Balancing the wind power production with refrigerated warehouse load management promises to be a clean and cost effective method. For refrigerated warehouse owners, it has the potential to lower operational costs.

Vanadium battery technology – integration in future renewable energy systems

Energy systems with high penetrations of intermittent renewable energy sources face great challenges when it comes to demand-supply balancing and power reserves. The vanadium battery technology may offer solutions to this by providing both energy storage and power system services. This paper presents the recent research activities on vanadium battery technology integration carried out at Riso National Laboratory. A vanadium battery has been installed in a research energy system SYSLAB. It has been characterized and its capabilities for the balancing of wind power have been demonstrated. A small simulation case study (based on the performance measurements of the real system) is presented and the results with respect to diesel fuel savings discussed.