Faculty

of Engineering & Information Technology

Department of Engineering
(Renewable Energy Engineering)

Grid Integration of Renewable Energy

Introduction to Power Grids
Dr. Mohammed Mahdi
Conventional Power System Components
 Modern Power System
Structure
(Integrated Renewable Energy Sources)
Example: Turkish Grid
Turkish National Electric Power System
Example: Turkish Grid
Turkish National Electric Power System
Power Plants: Hydropower Plants
Example: Turkish Grid
Turkish National Electric Power System
Power Plants: Thermal Power Plants
Example: Turkish Grid
Turkish National Electric Power System
Power Plants: Wind Farms
Example: Turkish Grid
Turkish National Electric Power System
Power Plants: Geothermal Power Plants
Example: Turkish Grid
Turkish National Electric Power System
Percentage share of electricity generation per source type
1,14 1,01 0,22
2,95 3,08

Hydro
7,19
Coal
29,38
Natural Gas+LNG
Wind
18,4 Geothermal
Solar
Biomass
Fuel oil
Waste Heat
36,62
1. Solar Energy: Photovoltaic systems
• Solar cells, also known as photovoltaic cells, use the photovoltaic
effect of semiconductors to generate electricity directly from the
sunlight.
• Because of high manufacturing costs, their use has been in limited
until recently.
• One cost-effective use has been in very low power devices such as
calculators with LCDs.
• Another use has been in remote applications such as roadside
emergency telephones, remote sensing, cathodic protection of
pipelines, and in isolated home power applications.
• A third use has been to power orbiting satellites and other
spacecraft.
1. Solar Energy: Photovoltaic systems
• However, the continual decline of manufacturing costs (dropping
at 3% to 5% a year in recent years) is expanding the range of cost-
effective uses.
 2. Wind Energy
• Among the renewable sources of energy available today for
generation of electrical power, wind energy stands foremost
because of the no pollution, relatively low capital cost involved and
the short gestation period required.
• Wind-powered systems have been widely used since the tenth
century for water pumping, grinding grain, and other low-power
applications.
• There were several early attempts to build large-scale wind-
powered systems to generate electricity.

Recently, wind turbine up to 8 MW and rotor

diameter of more than 164 m has been in operation.
2. Wind Energy, cont.
• Today, wind energy is the fastest growing
energy source.
• Wind power supplies about 5% of worldwide
electrical generation, with global installed wind
power capacity of about 600 GW.
• In 2019, wind supplied 1270 TWh of electricity,
which was 4.7% of worldwide electrical
generation.
• Wind power supplied 15% of the electricity
consumed in Europe in 2019.
2. Wind Energy, cont.
3. Small Hydropower
• Although this technology is not new, its wide application to small
waterfalls and other potential sites is newer.
• It is best suited to high falls with low volume, such as occur in high
valleys in the mountains.
• It is the application of hydroelectric power on a commercial scale
serving a small community.
• These plants are classified by power and size of waterfall.
• A generating capacity of up to 10 MW is becoming generally
accepted as the upper limit of small hydro, although this may be
stretched up to 30 MW in some countries.
• Small hydro can be further subdivided into mini-hydro, usually
defined as less than 1000 kW, and micro-hydro which is less than
100 kW.
3. Small Hydropower
3. Small Hydropower, cont.
• Hydroelectric power is the technology of generating electric
power from the movement of water through rivers, streams, and
tides.
• Water is fed via a channel to a turbine where it strikes the turbine
blades and causes the shaft to rotate.
• To generate electricity, the rotating shaft is connected to a
generator which converts the motion of the shaft into electrical
energy.
• Small hydro is often developed using existing dams or through
development of new dams whose primary purpose is river and
lake water-level control, or irrigation.
• A small-scale hydroelectric facility requires a sizeable flow of
water and a reasonable height of fall of water, called the head.
3. Small Hydropower, cont.
• Another advantage of using water resources is that hydraulic works
can be made simple, and large constructions, such as dams, are not
usually required.
• When dams are necessary, they affect less area than in lower zones
because of the steepness of the terrain.
• Dams, which exploit the kinetic energy of water by raising small
quantities of water to heights through the use of regulated pressure
valves, can provide water for domestic uses and for agriculture in
areas that are moderately higher than adjacent water courses.
• Another interesting possibility is the utilization of induction
generators for supplementing small hydroelectric plants, which
require lower initial costs and have technical operation advantages
over synchronous generators.
4. Biomass Energy
• Biomass is organic non-fossil material.
• In other words, biomass is all plant, trees, and animal matter on
the earth’s surface.
• Humans, domestic animals, and crops comprise somewhere
between 40% to 60% of the earth’s biomass.
• In many ways biomass can be considered as a form of stored solar
energy.
• The energy of the sun is “captured” through the process of
photosynthesis in growing plants.
• Biomass is sometimes burned as fuel for cooking and to produce
electricity and heat.
4. Biomass Energy, cont.
• Biomass contributes 14% of the world’s primary energy demands,
and in developing countries it constitutes 35% of the primary
energy supply.
• Biomass is an energy carrier that can be used in solid, liquid, and
gaseous forms, and is a versatile source of energy that can produce
electricity, heat, transport fuel, and can be stored conveniently.
• Energy production of biomass units ranges from small scale to
multi-megawatt size.
• The main biomass conversion technologies are biomass gasifiers
and biogas generation.
4. Biomass Energy, cont.
• Methanol and ethanol are popular sources of alternative energy
produced by the fermentation of organic matter, such as manure,
under anaerobic conditions.
• The use of biogas is encouraged because methane burns with a
clean flame and produces little pollution.
• Digestion of manure occurs in a digester, which must be strong
enough to withstand the buildup of pressure and must provide
anaerobic conditions for the bacteria inside.
4. Biomass Energy, cont.
5. Geothermal Energy
• Electricity from geothermal energy is generated by utilizing naturally
occurring geological heat sources.
• Geothermal-generated electricity was first produced at Larderello,
Italy, in 1904.
• Since then, the use of geothermal energy for electricity has grown
worldwide to about 14000 MW of which the United States produces
2700 MW. Turkey produces 1515 KW in 2019.
• The largest dry steam field in the world is The Geysers, about 90
miles north of San Francisco, began in 1960, which produces 2000
MW.
• Geothermal power is generated in over 20 countries around the
world including Iceland (producing 17% of its electricity from
geothermal sources), the United States, Italy, France, New Zealand,
Mexico, Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan.
5. Geothermal Energy, cont.
• Large scale electrical generation is possible in areas near geysers
or hot springs by utilizing naturally occurring steam, superheated
ground water, or using geothermal heat to heat a heat-transfer
fluid.
• Experiments are in progress to make deep wells into hot dry rocks
(HDR), which can be economically used to heat water pumped
down from the surface.
• Geothermal areas without steam are called HDR.
• HDR programs are currently being developed in Australia, France,
Switzerland, and Germany.
• Magma (molten rock) resources offer extremely high-temperature
geothermal opportunities, but existing technology does not allow
recovery of heat from these resources.
5. Geothermal Energy, cont.
• Although geothermal sites are capable of providing heat for many
decades, eventually they are depleted as the ground cools.
• It can be said that the geothermal resource is not strictly
renewable in the same sense as the hydro resource.
• Currently, there are few geothermal resource areas capable of
generating electricity at a cost competitive with other energy
sources, such as natural gas and coal.
• Some do not have a high enough temperature to produce steam
and others don’t have the water to produce steam, which is
necessary for current plant designs.
• Also, instead of producing electricity, lower temperature areas can
provide space and process heating.
5. Geothermal Energy, cont.
6. Tidal Energy
• Tidal power is a means of electricity generation achieved by
capturing the energy contained in moving water mass due to tides.
• Two types of tidal energy can be extracted: kinetic energy of currents
due to the tides and potential energy from the difference in height
(or head) between high and low tides.
• The extraction of potential energy involves building a barrage.
• The barrage traps a water level inside a basin.
• Head is created when the water level outside of the basin changes
relative to the water level inside. The head is used to drive turbines.
• In any design this leads to a decrease of tidal range inside the basin,
implying a reduced transfer of water between the basin and the sea.
• This reduced transfer of water accounts for the energy produced by
the scheme.
6. Tidal Energy, cont.
• Tidal power is classified as a renewable energy source, because
tides are caused by the orbital mechanics of the solar system and
are considered inexhaustible within a human time frame.
• The root source of the energy comes from the slow deceleration of
the earth’s rotation.
• The moon gains energy from this interaction and is slowly
receding from the earth.
• Tidal power has great potential for future power and electricity
generation because of the total amount of energy contained in this
rotation.
• The efficiency of tidal power generation largely depends on the
amplitude of the tidal swell, which can be up to 10 m where the
periodic tidal waves funnel into rivers and fjords.
6. Tidal Energy, cont.
• Selection of location is critical for a tidal power generator.
• The potential energy contained in a volume of water is
𝐸=𝑥𝑀𝑔
• where 𝑥 is the height of the tide, 𝑀 is the mass of water, and 𝑔 is
the acceleration due to gravity.
• Therefore, a tidal energy generator must be placed in a location
with very high-amplitude tides.
• Suitable locations have been found in the former USSR, the United
States, Canada, Australia, Korea, the United Kingdom and in many
other countries.
6. Tidal Energy, cont.
6. Tidal Energy, cont.
7. Ocean Thermal Energy
• OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) is an energy technology
that converts solar radiation to electrical power.
• OTEC systems use the ocean’s natural thermal gradient, the fact
that the ocean’s layers of water have different temperatures to
drive a power-producing cycle.
• As long as the temperature between the warm surface water and
the cold deep water differs by about 20 °C, an OTEC system can
produce a significant amount of power.
• The oceans are thus a vast renewable resource, with the potential
to help us produce billions of watts of electrical power.
• The potential is estimated to be about 10!" W of base load power
generation.
7. Ocean Thermal Energy, cont.
• The cold, deep seawater used in the OTEC process is also rich in
nutrients, and it can be used to culture both marine organisms and
plant life near the shore or on land.
7. Ocean Thermal Energy, cont.
• The main advantages of OTEC are that
1. it uses clean, renewable, and natural resources,
2. warm surface seawater and cold water from the ocean depths
replace fossil fuels to produce electricity,
3. suitably designed OTEC plants produce negligible pollution, and
4. it can produce freshwater as well as electricity, which is a
significant advantage in island areas where freshwater is limited.
7. Ocean Thermal Energy, cont.
• The disadvantages of OTEC are
1. OTEC-produced electricity at present costs more than the
electricity generated from fossil fuels at their current costs,
2. plants must be located where a difference of about 20 °C occurs
year-round,
3. ocean depths must be available fairly close to shore-based
facilities for economic operation, and
4. no energy company may put money in this project because it
only had been tested in a very small scale.
7. Ocean Thermal Energy, cont.
• OTEC covers 71% of the earth’s surface and acts as a natural
collector and store of solar energy.
• On an average day, 60 million km# of tropical seas absorb an
amount of solar radiation equivalent in heat content to about 245
billion barrel of oil.
• The main countries in which OTEC plants exist are the United
States with installed capacity of 100 MW, the United Kingdom, the
Netherlands, Japan, and Taiwan with capacity of about 10 MW.
7. Ocean Thermal Energy, cont.
7. Ocean Thermal Energy, cont.