Switching a Shared Behind-the-Meter Load Across Renewable Plants
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Solution Overview
Problem
Renewable energy power plants often generate more energy than they can store or transmit to the grid, leading to energy curtailment and waste, due to limitations in energy storage systems and point-of-grid interconnect capacity, resulting in high costs and inefficiencies.
Innovation Solution
A transferrable behind-the-meter load system that selectively couples with different renewable energy power plants through a switching system, controlled by a processor to charge and operate using available energy that would otherwise be curtailed or wasted, ensuring efficient energy utilization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If energy storage system capacity is increased to store more generated energy, then energy waste is reduced, but equipment cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple renewable energy power plants into a single coordinated system that shares a common behind-the-meter load. By merging the energy output from multiple plants and coordinating their discharge to a shared load, the system utilizes energy that would otherwise be curtailed at individual plants, thereby reducing energy waste without requiring each plant to have expensive oversized storage capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The behind-the-meter load serves multiple functions: it acts as an energy sink for curtailed power from renewable plants, provides energy arbitrage opportunities, and enables coordination between multiple power plants. This multi-functional approach allows the same infrastructure to address multiple problems simultaneously, reducing the need for dedicated expensive equipment at each plant.
2Loss of energy
If point-of-grid interconnect capacity is increased to transmit more energy to the grid, then energy waste is reduced, but equipment cost and operational complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a coordinator controller as an intermediary that manages energy flow between multiple renewable power plants and the behind-the-meter load. This intermediary device simplifies operations by centrally controlling the switching and energy distribution, eliminating the need for complex independent operations at each plant while maximizing utilization of curtailed energy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system allows renewable energy plants to serve each other's excess energy needs through coordinated discharge to a shared behind-the-meter load. Each plant's curtailed energy is utilized by the collective system rather than being wasted, creating a self-serving energy ecosystem that reduces overall waste without requiring extensive grid interconnection infrastructure.
3Productivity
If multiple renewable energy power plants are coordinated to share a common load, then energy utilization efficiency is improved, but switching system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The switching system is designed to be dynamically reconfigurable, allowing the coordinator controller to adaptively connect different renewable power plants to the behind-the-meter load based on real-time energy availability and demand conditions. This dynamic switching capability enables high energy utilization efficiency by continuously optimizing which plants discharge to the load, while the automated control minimizes the perceived complexity for operators.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure describes a system that includes a behind-the-meter load, a switching system, and a controller. The controller can be configured to receive, from the REPP controller of each of the plurality of REPPs, energy data regarding available energy of the REPP; determine first energy data received from a first REPP controller of a first REPP of the plurality of REPPs satisfies a condition; and responsive to the determination, adjust a switching position of the switching system to a first switching position to enable the first REPP to provide energy to the behind-the-meter load.