Control power – Storage of renewable power into thermal energy

General situation

Due to the growing share of renewable power generation, which cannot be controlled by the most important sources of energy wind and sun, and the displacement of the controllable thermal power plants, balancing producer and consumer outputs becomes increasingly demanding.

These rapid and large fluctuations in production present ever-increasing problems for the network operators because they must provide the power consumers with good energy quality, i.e. stable voltage and mains frequency. In the worst case, a power failure occurs.

The major challenge of the increasing share of renewable energies in the energy mix is thus to compensate for the fluctuating demand for electricity and the severely fluctuating wind and solar power supply. Flexible solutions are required for rapid load variations and stabilization of frequency fluctuations (control power).

Why are energy storage devices necessary?

Wind and solar energy do not always produce the same amount of power.

Intelligent use of surplus energy with Power to Heat technology

• Use of stabilization of frequency fluctuations in the electricity network as value-added potential.
• High degree of flexibility in response to load fluctuations
• Use of the excess regenerative power by conversion into thermal energy (direct feed into local or district heating networks)
• Save energy (as thermal energy in hot water storage)
• Process heat generated economically
• Opportunities for additional revenue in the regulatory energy market
• Saving fossil fuels and reducing CO₂ emissions

Electric heaters are particularly suitable as a flexible control energy capacity compared to negative secondary control reserve.

• Decades of experience of this proven technology
• Fast response time between power requirement and full load (<5 min)
• Long-term routine in mechanical and electrical installation
• Low maintenance (no moving, rotating parts that cause wear)
• No emission (noise / exhaust gas)
• Increased operational safety in redundant heat generators (in addition to fossil-fuelled heat generators)
• Precise temperature or power control
• High conversion efficiency from electricity to heat (> 98%)

All-round service with strong partners:

The company OhmEx cooperates with selected manufacturing partners. In doing so, we use the excellent production capacities, machine equipment and the specific know-how of our partners and put it into a whole unit.