In September 2012, the Executive Yuan approved the Smart Grid Master Plan and selected Penghu as the location to establish a smart grid demonstration site. This demonstration project, which is being promoted by the Bureau of Energy under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the National Energy Program-Phase II (NEPII), and the Taiwan Power Company, has achieved considerable success, under the fully cooperation of Taiwan's industry, government, and academia in developing smart grid technologies.
In order to establish a high-quality, high-efficiency, and environmentally-friendly smart grid, the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Bureau of Energy is keenly promoting the Smart Grid Master Plan, dividing its development into the establishment phase (2011~2015), the expansion phase (2016~2020), and the mature phase (2021~2030). Dr. Faa-Jeng Lin, a chair professor at National Central University as well as the convener of the National Energy Program's smart grid project, says that during the initial phase, the focus is on the Penghu Smart Grid Demonstration Site, testing the integration of related smart grid technologies and efforts to verify smart grid performance and establish a sound foundation for the industry.
The Penghu Smart Grid Demonstration Site Project, which is being implemented by ITRI, has made considerable progress in terms of power generation, transmission, distribution and the end users, and will likely conclude the initial establishment phase with a high level of success. For the end users, 2000 low-voltage smart meters as well as 100 home energy management systems (HEMS) have been deployed. In terms of power distribution, the automation of two feeder lines has been completed, covering both the backbone as well as branches, with Taiwan being the first to achieve such a feat. In terms of power transmission, smart substation technologies have been successfully introduced into two traditional substations. In terms of power generation, which is the most critical part, ITRI has joined forces with Tatung (which has full experience in smart grid and micro-grid technologies as well as a strong track record in their establishments and deployments) and they have successfully incorporated Toshiba's Micro Energy Management System (µEMS) to achieve an unprecedented major milestone in localized application of Taiwan's regional micro-grid.
ITRI develops control and adjustment technologies to accelerate micro-grid commercialization
Having achieved a great deal of success, ITRI recently held a Penghu Smart Grid Demonstration Site Exchange Exhibition, with Dr. Faa-Jeng Lin (convener of the NEPII's smart grid project), Dr. Wu-Chi Ho (Deputy General Director of ITRI's Green Energy and Environmental Research Laboratories), Morris Liang (Division Director of the Electric Energy Technology Division at ITRI's Green Energy and Environmental Research Laboratories), as well as Wei-Lin Chen (General Manager of Tatung Micro Grid Division Smart Solution BU) were all present to unveil Taiwan's technology and research accomplishments in related technologies.
According to Dr. Ho, in the early stages, there were very small electrical grids. But as small grids were economically inefficient, the electrical grids became larger and larger, resulting in a grid in which various large electrical grids supported each other, but also resulting in a strange situation in which the grids also restricted each other. Later there was a major power outage that hit New York. It started when some software and a small number of power distribution lines failed, triggering a domino effect that shut down other parts of the electrical grid. In the end, more than 508 subsystems tripped, causing power outages that affected 50 million people. In light of this, the governments of many countries (including the United States) are incorporating distributed energy systems and actively engaging in the development of the smart grid in order to increase power reliability, making micro-grids a major trend.
The global micro-grid developments show that most micro-grids begin on islands where there are rich renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar energy. Once storage mechanisms are established, a balance is formed between electrical power generation and consumption, creating an independent and self-sufficient electrical grid. However, storage equipment is expensive, hindering development. This is why current micro-grids are mostly for demonstration purposes and commercial operations are rare. Therefore, the goal of the Penghu demonstration project handled by ITRI, Tatung and others is to achieve technological breakthroughs in order to reduce costs and enable commercially-feasible micro-grids.
Morris Liang further explains that micro-grids do not necessarily need to be "micro" and that the key is not about size (sizes may actually vary). The key is the addition of control capabilities that the existing electrical grid does not possess. In the event of a mains power supply failure, a micro-grid connected with the mains power grid would be able to disconnect from the mains system, operate independently, and maintain a balance between supply and demand of electrical power. The role of ITRI is to provide technologies that can facilitate balancing mechanisms, including storage technologies with reasonable costs, and decision algorithms used for moderation at the user end. And to support the development in these two major areas, ITRI is also developing new technologies and components. An example is the establishment of backup and balancing mechanisms between multiple feeder lines. Ultimately, the goal is to collaborate with related industries and commercialize related technologies.
For the Penghu demonstration project, the introduction of µEMS (a collaborative effort between ITRI, Toshiba, and Tatung), is a key. ITRI chose Toshiba's µEMS platform as a foundation because it had already been successfully implemented and validated. The goal of the system is to be able to control solar power generation and to avoid feeder line voltages from spiking. By introducing new algorithms from ITRI to carry out repetitive validation and adjustment efforts, and by incorporating solar power generation systems and smart inverters provided by Tatung, the localization of µEMS technology was successfully achieved.
High commercial growth potential exists for micro-grids in underdeveloped regions in terms of electrical power resources
Dr. Lin explains that the four goals of the Penghu Smart Grid Demonstration Site Project are to develop micro-grid technologies, establish micro-grid demonstrations, support the growth of related system vendors, and ultimately to help related systems vendors expand into the global market. System vendors must work closely with R&D teams and closely collaborate with partner vendors that have particular strengths of their own. In addition, system integration capabilities of a certain scale are also required. Tatung Co. was the one that established Taiwan's first micro-grid (the Pingtung Linbian Smart Micro-Grid Demonstration Park), which not only was awarded the Executive Yuan Board of Science and Technology's 2015 Smart City Innovative Application "Smart Energy Conservation" award, but was also recently awarded the silver medal for APEC's 2015 Energy and Smart Community Application Competition in the micro-grid category, showing that Tatung possesses the strengths and capabilities required for playing a key role in the Penghu Smart Grid Demonstration Project.
According to Dr. Lin, developing countries and least-developed countries do not have the capability to build centralized power grids in areas with insufficient power supply coverage, and tend to establish micro-grids in various areas in order to fill in the gaps in terms of power supply. As for island regions, due to the high costs of thermal power generation and fuel transportation, people will inevitably find ways to increase the penetration of renewable energies going forward, replacing diesel-based power generation and resulting in an increase of demand for independent micro-grids.
These requirements pose great opportunities for Taiwan's industries. Therefore, in order to help vendors expand into the global market, the Ministry of Science and Technology's National Energy Program will continue to hold symposiums focusing on different countries to help vendors better understand local regulations of those countries, and prepare paper work and project plans needed for tenders, accelerating the pace of vendors winning overseas micro-grid bids.
Wu-Chi Ho says that going forward, ITRI will not only continue to improve micro-grid prediction, adjustment and monitoring technologies to meet demands for industrial solutions, but also establish large-scale micro-grid zones for non-demonstration purposes, encouraging operators to establish storage systems, prediction systems, and even their own electrical power equipment in these areas. At the same time, ITRI will also work to improve virtual power plant technologies and begin R&D of control technologies that surpass present demand response (DR) levels. Going forward, ITRI will help vendors provide even better total solutions and expand into the global micro-grid market.
Tatung promotes localization of µEMS and helps build Penghu demonstration site
Tatung Co. 's Wei-Lin Chen says that when exporting its solutions to other countries, Taiwan's electrical power industry will face regulatory, policy, and financial restrictions, making such efforts very difficult. On the other hand, by using micro-grids as a foundation and focusing on villages, remote regions, and small island areas with underdeveloped electrical power and information technology infrastructures, Taiwan-based companies will have a much higher chance of success. This is the reason why Tatung is actively engaging in the micro-grid industry.
There is no denying that electrical power systems allow no room for error, which is why the global electrical power industry places the highest priority on "reliability." Vendors that wish to take advantage of market opportunities in the micro-grid market must be able to provide convincing evidence of the reliability of their systems. Otherwise, their systems will not be accepted, even if their solutions are potentially groundbreaking. Tatung's goals are very clear. Tatung will target the global market, which is full of business opportunities for micro-grid technologies. However, the obstacles are also great, and will require a great deal of time and effort to overcome. This is not a market in which success can be achieved overnight.
In light of this, Tatung has actively participated in the Penghu Smart Grid Demonstration Project and worked closely with ITRI, NEPII, as well as the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research in order to overcome all obstacles to technological integration and establish a micro-grid demonstration site that is capable of proving the reliability of micro-grid technologies. Tatung's contributions in this project and the previous Pingtung Linbian Smart Micro-Grid Demonstration Park project have helped establish a solid foundation for expanding into the global market.
According to Chen, in the Penghu project, Tatung uses solar power generation incorporated with Toshiba's micro energy management technology to perform localization and adjustment, successfully developing a monitoring platform capable of control as well as reporting of total smart inverter power generation values in a short amount of time. This means that even when renewable energies are added to the electrical grid, the µEMS system will still be able to perform power generation prediction as well as load prediction, thereby maintaining a level of electrical power quality that meets the Taiwan Power Company's requirements. In addition, this will also help realize the ultimate goal of allowing "single renewable energy feeder line installation rates to reach 30%."
Tatung joins forces with other organizations to expand the micro-grid industries to overseas markets.
