E-telligence

In the Cuxhaven region, the project, eTelligence, is testing a complex control system to balance out fluctuating windpower that intelligently integrates electricity into the grids and a regional market. The core component of eTelligence is a regional electricity marketplace that brings together producers, con­sumers with shiftable loads, energy service providers and grid operators. As well as improving supply security from renewable energies, this also enhances economic efficiency. A particular challenge here is to integrate the marketplace tested in the course of a one­year field trial into the ongoing business operations of the overall power supply system. During the field trial, the participant actors were exposed both to marketing and price risk as well as forecast risk. The market participants are two cold­storage depots, a windpark, the Cuxhaven municipal swimming pool, a treatment plant and a block­type thermal power station. These can be flexibly connected either individually or as a virtual power station and together can be managed and predicted in a similar way to a conventional power station. Here, controllable units in particular (e.g. producers with power/heat cogeneration or switchable loads) can provide power generation flexibilities for the market. eTelligence was able to demonstrate that especially thermal electrical energy systems, such as cold­storage depots and block­type thermal power stations can be used very effectively as energy storage facilities: When a lot of wind is available, the Cuxhaven cold­storage depot lowers its temperature and creates a cold buffer for itself. When electricity prices are high, the refrigeration systems are switched off. Using the cold buffer previously built up, the cold­storage depot can then run for some days with much lower power demand. This substantially reduces electricity supply costs over the year.