Energy savings by voltage management
PSS Energy wishes to develop and test a Digital Voltage Control and a 10/04 Voltage Optimisation Unit.
DVC is a digital transformer, designed to reduce power consumption in private households with 6-20%.
10/04 VOU is made for stabilising the supply grid, making it possible for the DNOs to monitor, regulate
and control the voltage in the power grid.
The main objective of this project is to develop and demonstrate two new energy optimisation units: The
DVC (Digital Voltage Control) for private households enabling a direct 6-20% saving in power consumption,
and the 10/04 VOU (Voltage Optimisation Unit) for stabilising the supply grid.
DVC
PSS Energy is currently able to reduce the power consumption in large buildings by 5 – 35% by reducing
the voltage and standby consumption. Such systems have been sold and installed in countries with high
voltages such as Denmark, Cyprus and Italy on commercial contracts guaranteeing the savings for the
customers. In short, energy suppliers often deliver higher voltages (up to 253 V in Denmark) than
necessary to cover the demand in a building due to capacity issues in the grid, leading to increased
consumption. Voltage reduction in itself saves up to 15% of the consumption, while additional
management of the standby consumption in i.e. offices, outside office hours, has been documented to give
total power savings of 35%.
With this project a DVC will be developed, able to manage voltage and thereby reducing energy
consumption in the more than 1 million Danish single-family houses, offering a significant business case to
PSS Energy. Further, political motivated goals such as less dependency on imported and fossil fuels and
reduced greenhouse gas emissions will be supported in a very efficient manner.
The benefits for the power supplier will be:
1. Avoided or postponed investment in infrastructure
2. Active monitoring and management of consumption (as opposed to “smart metering”, which is usually
constrained to monitoring)
3. Smart Grid readiness enabled in every single-family house in the supply area.
10/04 VOU
The increasing popularity of solar cells and the possibility of delivering excess energy production to the
national grid are creating huge challenges for supply companies. For the excess energy to be sent back to
the grid, the voltage from the solar cells must be higher, compared with the voltage in the supply grid. This
increases the voltage in the supply grid, and high voltage leads to increased power consumption and
shortens the life expectancy of the electric appliances. Further, in some instances, the energy production
from solar cells is higher than the energy production from the traditional power plant. When this happens,
suppliers have no way of controlling the voltage or the frequency, which leads to an unstable power supply
and in worst case scenario black outs. The 10/04 VOU can be part of the Smart Grid, and help stabilising
the fluctuations and subsequently secure the stability of the power supply. It enables the suppliers to
monitor voltage levels in the power grid and it permits them to regulate the voltage and balance the three
phases, thereby optimising the power quality. Finally it provides the ability to control, and in case of an
emergency, turn off parts of the power consumption.
Key figures
Category
Participants
Partner | Subsidy | Auto financing |
---|---|---|
PSS ENERGY A/S | 3,98 mio. DKK | 4,86 mio. DKK |
PSS Energy Group International Ltd | 0,30 mio. DKK | 0,36 mio. DKK |
Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU) | 2,77 mio. DKK | 0,49 mio. DKK |
SEAS-NVE STRØMMEN A/S | 0,49 mio. DKK | 0,74 mio. DKK |