Electricity from gas generators in Borkovany will balance the Czech power grid
MND is entering a new business that has great potential. We are finalizing the Borkovany Support Services Source (BSSS) project, the core of which is an electricity generating facility that will be used to regulate imbalances in the Czech Republic's electricity grid once it is operational.
The regulation of imbalance states is provided for the Czech Republic by ČEPS, a. s., which uses various entities offering the electrical power of its sources for these purposes on the basis of a contract. In order to compensate for the lack or surplus of electricity in the system, ČEPS uses the electrical resources of selected entities, which are switched on in the event of a shortage of electricity and used to supplement the missing power in the electricity system, or other resources are shut down in the event that the energy consumption is lower than the current electricity production. For the readiness offered in this way, the bidding entity collects funds according to the actual amount of control energy offered and an additional amount is paid if a specific resource is activated and generates control energy for the electricity system. In addition to these regulation services, we also plan to use the Borkovany ZPPS facility for trading on the daily and intraday electricity market. The specific use of the resource will be decided by the MND Trading Department in Prague based on analysis and profitability in a specific period.
The ZPPS Borkovany source has a total installed capacity of 3.18 MWe and consists of six machines from GENTEC CHP. Each motor-generator has a maximum electrical output of 530 kWe and is powered by a MAN natural gas-fired reciprocating internal combustion engine (the technology is also referred to as Gas To Power or G2P for short). The power from the motor-generators is fed into the electricity grid via three newly built 3 x 1250 kVA substations and a new high voltage substation and field at the existing TrafoBor 4 station to the 22 kV high voltage level. The fuel gas for the engine generators will be supplied from the neighbouring TS Borkovany II extraction centre. On the other hand, electricity for the needs of MND extraction at Borkovany will be covered partly by generation from the WPS, if the source is operational, and partly from the distribution network as before.
The work is being delivered on a turnkey basis by GENTEC CHP, s.r.o.
We are now dealing with the legal requirements and the acts of connecting the source to the EG.D. distribution system, which will allow the source to operate permanently within the distribution system. In parallel with these activities, the supplier company is starting the process of certification of the source for the services of supplying regulating energy to ČEPS. The entire connection and certification process has clear procedural and time sequences with the institutions concerned, which also results in the time-consuming nature of the process.
At this point in time, we estimate the date of commissioning of the source for permanent operation including certification for power balance services for CEPS in autumn this year.
In parallel with the Borkovany ZPPS project, the Hr5 ZPPS project is being actively prepared to complement the Borkovany source, thus increasing the potential availability of both sources. The Hr5 ZPPS project will be implemented in 2025.
Ivo Berka
Project Manager
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