Expensive energy will change our behavior, says the head of the state-owned ČEPS

In an interview for SZ Byznys, Martin Durčák, the chairperson of the board of directors of the state-owned company ČEPS, explains how the Czech Republic is doing with energy security.

In the interview, he discusses, among other things, the issue of support services and the need to build resources that will provide power balance services for the grid. For example, Mr. Durčák said, “When many more unpredictable resources start to connect, the demand for these services will increase and we will have to demand more of them. Backup resources must be able to start operation within 15 minutes now and, by 2022, it will need to be no more than 12.5 minutes. And they really need to be reliable.”

He added that aggregation flexibility will also play a role in managing the stability of the distribution network. Then, on the topic of flexibility aggregation, he said, “One conventional power plant can reduce or increase its output by, say, thirty megawatts on command. But the new flexibility aggregator can also serve a similar purpose. That is, the entity that manages, say, 30 small-sized CHP units of one megawatt, or 60 half-megawatt cogenerations. ČEPS will communicate with this aggregator and this aggregator will guarantee that those thirty CHP units in various locations in the Czech Republic will react in the same way as one large power plant. All of them will either reduce or increase their output on command, as required.” It is clear from the above that CHP units will play a significant role in providing grid stability and that ČEPS is counting on them to some extent.

We would like to add that in addition to the aforementioned small-sized CHP units, we are also ready to supply large resources with an output of 3-12 MWe on individual CHP units. We are already involved in the preparation of some projects and we will soon open a section on our website dedicated to these technologies. For the time being, we are presenting them at conferences. We spoke about them, for example, at the ENERGETIKA 2021 CONFERENCE and at the DISTRICT HEATING AND ENERGY DAYS 2021 event.

We are also involved in the development of a smart control system for CHP units to control them in the context of resource aggregation, which is also the discussed in the article.

If you are interested in the possibility of building large-scale or small-scale CHP units, or if you would like to learn more about our CHP control system solution in virtual power plants, feel free to contact our Sales Team and we will be happy to discuss the possibilities to cooperate with you.