HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity of Kotzebue - Kotzebue Paper & Wood Waste to Energy - Premium Power Transflow Kotzebue Witmer_2011Dennis Witmer,
Energy Efficiency Evaluations
Brad Reeve,
Kotzebue Electric Association
Background
Wind Diesel systems are being installed around Alaska,
mostly in low penetration applications
Control is problematic in higher penetration systems —
wind does not follow load, diesel engines must run and
compensate
Fuel savings are less than anticipated because DEG
operates under less than ideal loads
Adding a large battery to the system buffers the loads and
generators
However, batteries have issues —short life, high cost, and
hazardous disposal issues
Kotzebue Electric Association
Installed first commercial scale wind turbines in Arctic
environment
Currently operates 17 wind turbines with a combined
capacity of 1.2 MW in a system with a 3 MW load (low
penetration)
Is adding an additional 1.8 MW of wind in 2012
Has proven to be a utility willing to manage the risks
associated with new technologies
View of possible battery options
Lead Acid batteries
Short life, high cost per kW-hr stored
NiCads (BESS in Fairbanks)
High cost
NaS battery
High cost, 10 year life
Vanadium Re-Dox battery
Still in demonstration, price rising due to vanadium cost
Possible hazardous material issues
Zinc-Bromine batteries
Several suppliers
Appear low cost
Premium Power Battery
Zinc Bromide battery
From technology developed in 1980s at Exxon
Developed by Power Cell (also did super capacitor
work)
Bankruptcy in 2002
Purchased by current owners
Remains privately funded (investment of about $100M)
Premium Power Transflow 2000
General information available on web page
Battery built in a commercial truck trailer
Nominal 500 kW, 2.8 MW-hr battery
Claim of 30 year lifetime
Is it for real?
Visit to Premium Power, May 2009
Discussions May 2009
Factory tour indicating low cost manufacturing
methods (milk jug plastic)
Indicated business plan to rapidly increase production
Willing to participate in demonstration with “Alaskan
Rules”—public funding requires public disclosure of
performance
Summer 2009--Proposal submitted to Denali
Commission to purchase battery, but only partially
funded
NRECA Stimulus funding proposal
Purchase a total of 8 batteries for various locations,
including KEA
Negotiated a contract with “partial assumption” clause
if stimulus funding was not obtained
NRECA did not obtain stimulus funding, but KEA was
able to purchase battery under this contract (March
2010) using a variety of funds
History since then
Battery “missed the boat” in summer of 2010
Meeting January 2011 indicated intention to ship in
early summer
Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) scheduled for early June
Schedule slipped a month—FAT held in July
Battery Shipped from Boston about August 1 and has
just arrived in Kotzebue
Factory Acceptance Test Results
Witnessed the Factory Acceptance Test as the buyer’s
representative
This unit is the first complete Transflow 2000 system
Premium Power is delivering to a utility
Unit was operating as a complete package, and had been
for about three months (several hundred hours of testing)
Unit was remotely controlled, and appeared to be
functioning well
Premium Power was eager to ship the unit
Shipping extra spare parts to assure success
Unit at FAT
Data from FAT
Unit generates massive amounts of data from control
system—data reduction is not trivial
Raw data was not provided, nor was it requested
Reduced data provided indicated a total of 6 full
charge-discharge cycles were performed
Results were not consistent from run to run
Unit stored about 1.6 MW-hours of power rather than
the 2.8 MW specified in brochure
AC efficiency looks like it’s in the low 60% range
FAT Decision
Premium Power is eager to get unit in field, appears
willing to support unit in Kotzebue
Cost of stored power still below $0.10 per kW-hr (still
cheaper than diesel fuel)
This is an “emerging technology”
Going forward makes sense—
Battery still provides grid stabilization function
Stored power still economical
Unit Shipped
TransFlow 2000 on last barge to Kotzebue
Arrived in Kotzebue September 24, 2011
Receiving inspection revealed some minor damage
(sea salt corrosion, damage to external skin)
Hopefully can be connected to KEA plant before too
much snow piles up
Needs to be integrated with KEA existing SCADA
system
Hopefully, good news to report at next conference