How Electrical Storage Heaters Can Reduce Wind Curtailment by Satisfying System Reserve Requirements

Abstract

This paper proposes how using electric storage heaters could provide a portion of the system reserve requirements which would otherwise have to be satisfied by conventional generation. With the upgrade and install of new advanced electrical storage heaters there is the potential to provide large system reserve capabilities when combined with a high-speed communications network. Together with these new more efficient heaters, not only will domestic emissions be reduced, the overall electrical grid CO2 intensity should experience an improvement due to the incorporation of the demand side management (DSM) aspect. The All-Ireland system has been used in this paper as an example of an electrical network which is undergoing a significant transition to high penetrations of renewables, while having a considerable population of potentially upgradeable electric heating sources for DSM control.