System, method and computer program product for enhancing commercial value of electrical power produced from a renewable energy power production facility

Abstract

A method, system and computer program product enhance the commercial value of electrical power produced from a wind turbine production facility. Features include the use of a premier power conversion device that provides an alternative source of power for supplementing an output power of the wind turbine generation facility when lull periods for wind speed appear. The invention includes a communications infrastructure and coordination mechanism for establishing a relationship with another power production facility such that when excess electrical power is produced by the wind turbine facility, the excess may be provided to the power grid while the other energy production facility cuts back on its output production by a corresponding amount. A tracking mechanism keeps track of the amount of potential energy that was not expended at the other facility and places this amount in a virtual energy storage account, for the benefit of the wind turbine facility. When, the wind turbine power production facility experiences a shortfall in its power production output it may make a request to the other source of electric power, and request that an increase its power output on behalf of the wind turbine facility. This substitution of one power production facility for another is referred to herein as a virtual energy storage mechanism. Furthermore, another feature of the present invention is the use of a renewal power exchange mechanism that creates a market for trading renewable units of power, which have been converted into “premier power” and/or “guaranteed” by secondary sources of power source to provide a reliable source of power to the power grid as required by contract.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention is directed to a system, method and computer program product that relates to a renewable power production facility, such as a wind turbine generated power production facility that produces electrical power that is applied to a power grid. More specifically, the present invention is directed to systems, methods and computer program product for enhancing the commercial value of electric power produced by wind turbine facilities so as to make that electric power as commercially valuable and fungible as electric power produced by other plants such as fossil fuel power plants, hydroelectric plants, nuclear plants and the like. [0003] 2. Discussion of the Background [0004] Wind power is a “natural” power production source that instinctively should be regarded as an optimum source of energy for producing electric power. Wind power does not require the burning of fossil fuels, does not result in nuclea...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0035] By creating “premier” power that is both reliable in terms of short term variation long term reliability as well as during fault conditions, the electrical power produced by a wind turbine generation facility according to the present invention is able to be coupled via “guaranteed” contracts with a virtual energy storage facility, thus making the electricity generated from wind power as fungible as other types of power sources. As a consequence, by creating the premier power, the opportunity exists for creating a renewable exchange to permit the transfer and obligation of wind generated electrical power in units that can be freely sold on the power market. Furthermore, creating “premier”

Problems solved by technology

On the other hand, wind power is a variable (stochastic) power generation source, thus not offering power production facilities the type of control that the power production and grid facility would like to have in producing commercially reliable power.

These wind power plants are today planned to grow slightly above three megawatts per unit, limited by a reliable size of the wind turbine, (the “propeller”).

A perplexing task that has somewhat stifled the use of wind power plants is that there has been no commercially viable way, in light of the price of fuel generated by other power plants, to effectively store electricity generated by windmills during periods of peak production, so as to make up for periods when the wind slows.

As a consequence, the capital cost, lack of production control, size, and reliability problems limited the proliferation of such wind plants between the periods of 1890 and 1970.

As a consequence, the use of wind power declined sharply both with the spread of steam-engines and with the increase in scale of electrical power utilization.

Thus, windmills generally were only limited for small scale processes and were unable to compete with large scale steam powered electrical power facilities.

Furthermore, the commercial cost of such wind-generated power was much greater compared to those with generating systems based on coal, oil, gas and hydro.

In a first typical windmill power generation facility, an asynchronous machine is used that acts as a generator but also inherently consumes reactive power from the AC grid.

However, as recognized by the present inventors, there is a risk with such systems, namely where the capacitor bank causes the system to become self-magnetized thus causing the frequency to differ by as much as tens of hertz from the standard oscillation frequency after a fault occurs.

However, the use of this mechanical gearbox increases the cost by three to five times the cost of the generator, also having dramatic increases in the mean time between failure, and mean time to repair of the device, thus not making these designs commercially competitive with the more reliable and less costly fossil fuel power production facilities.

However, as recognized by the p

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