More challenges
The rapidly increasing integration of renewable energy (RE) sources into the power system have posed new challenges in the stable and safe operation. Therefore, the ESS is indispensable in the long term in the highly integrated renewable energy power system; In the short term, this is an important solution to increase the efficiency of solar and wind power in Vietnam.
However, the application of energy storage technology is now still facing many difficulties due to mechanisms and policies barriers; planning procedures; lack of regulatory and guidance documents on auxiliary service models of power systems of various types of energy storage systems, etc.
Mr. Tran Tue Quang - Deputy Director of Electricity Regulatory Authority, Ministry of Industry and Trade delivered the opening speech
Sharing about difficulties in RE development, Mr. Hoang Trong Hieu - Deputy Chief of the Office of the National Steering Committee for Electricity Development said, regarding the tariff compensation mechanism, the RE electricity price is currently higher than that of traditional energy sources. Vietnam Electricity is being assigned by the State to purchase all electricity output from RE projects at the tariff set by the State. Thus, EVN is performing the function on behalf of the State. When the proportion of RE increases, it will greatly affect the cost of the electricity industry. Technically, because it depends heavily on weather, terrain and climate conditions, the potential of renewable energy sources is often concentrated in a few provinces and localities. Notably, the consumption load in most of these localities is small, thus overloading the power transmission system. Meanwhile, the research, construction and operation of power storage devices, construction of real-time weather and meteorology forecasting systems, etc. have not yet met the actual requirements.
There should be a policy to promote energy storage investment solutions soon
Mr. Nguyen Thai Son - Permanent member of the Energy Science Council, Vietnam Energy Magazine shared, in the power system with high penetration of renewable energy sources, in addition to developing pumped-storage hydropower for peak power generation, the research and development of BESS are necessary. Currently, the application of energy storage technology is not popular, the capacity is small and the cost is still high. Therefore, the investment and development in BESS need to be carefully calculated to ensure efficiency.
According to Mr. Nguyen Thai Son, the Government should soon have the policy to promote the application of BESS investment solutions for RE plants, or the entire power system; consider investing in and building other pumped-storage hydropower projects, in addition to the Bac Ai pumped-storage hydropower project; State management agencies of the Energy sector need to include the investment model of energy storage battery system in the power planning VIII; differentiate and address the respective BESS investment mechanisms.
In addition, the State also needs to supply and adjust relevant legal documents, because according to current legal documents, BESS is not allowed to participate in providing services to the system, because this is a new type, does not produce electricity, has no mechanism, has not been defined in the regulations. In addition, the State also needs to study and issue technical standards for grid-connected energy storage systems.
Speaking at this seminar, a representative of the National Load Dispatch Center said that at present, the proportion of RE sources in the total installed capacity of the whole system is very high (about 25%), causing many difficulties in operating the power system. Therefore, the need to store energy is urgent right now, to ensure peak and backup for wind and solar power.
Along with energy storage technology, at the seminar, the delegates also suggested that it is necessary to continue developing pumped-storage hydropower in the coming period. With the advantage of having a large capacity and reserve capacity and the exploitation time of up to 70-80 years, the development of pumped-storage hydropower will help improve the system performance. Specifically, pumped-storage hydropower will support the power system in covering peak demand – baseload, contributing to shaving the load, supporting other plants on the system to operate more efficiently; supporting to reduce power line load, increase the ability to absorb RE sources; participating in frequency regulator, especially in the context of increased penetration of RE sources with high volatility, the need for redundancy of frequency control capacity for the system is increasing.