Base load capacity

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The ability of a power plant or types of power plant to provide electrical energy on a permanent basis without frequent or long interruptions is referred to as the base load capacity .

Base load capable power plants

All types of conventional thermal power plants such as coal-fired power plants and gas-fired power plants (including combined cycle power plants ), as well as nuclear power plants, are capable of base load . Biomass and biogas power plants , geothermal power plants and almost all hydropower plants that use the flow speed of rivers are also capable of baseload . Pump storage power plants , wave power plants and solar thermal power plants with integrated salt storage are conditionally capable of baseload. With the installation of a gas burner, with which the heat of combustion of fuel gases such. B. methane or hydrogen can be fed into the system, solar thermal power plants can also be made fully base load capable.

Due to their supply-dependent and thus volatile feed-in, photovoltaic and wind power plants are initially not capable of base load. In connection with additional storage technology , these are not only capable of baseload, but can also be regulated to the greatest possible extent. This means they can even take on medium load and peak load tasks that pure base load power plants cannot.

meaning

With the transformation of the energy system towards a more sustainable production method , also known as the energy transition , there is an increased expansion of the volatile feed-in of wind and solar energy. At the same time, a sufficiently large, secured power must be available in the network system at all times in order to maintain security of supply in order to be able to cover the remaining residual load. If the secured power cannot be provided by means of adequately dimensioned storage power plants, which for reasons of efficiency is only seen as desirable for later phases with high proportions of renewable energies in the electricity mix , it must be provided by base load-capable power plants. In the long term, this should take place through biomass and geothermal power plants, but it is assumed that conventional power plants will have to be used for a longer period of time. The use of cogeneration- operated gas-fired power plants and CHPs with heat storage is considered to be a promising bridge technology in order to enable these systems to be operated with electricity . On the one hand, these power plants are easy to regulate and therefore offer the necessary technical flexibility to compensate for fluctuations in wind and solar energy. On the other hand, they can be gradually converted to renewable energy sources in the course of their operating life by switching fuel from fossil natural gas to biogas and synthetic methane from power-to-gas systems.

Differentiation from the term base load power plant

Base load power plants are not to be confused with base load power plants . While the base load capacity is a purely technical criterion, the suitability as a base load power plant results primarily from economic aspects, in particular the specific cost structure ( merit order ). Base load power plants are expensive to build and have low variable operating costs (fuel costs), which is why they are in operation as continuously as possible. Typical base load power plants are accordingly nuclear power plants and lignite power plants, which, due to their application profile, are not subject to any demands for rapid controllability, and hydropower plants. Wind power is also one of the base load energies - although not base load capable - due to its specific cost structure with very low marginal costs . The opposite is true for gas-fired power plants. Although these are base load capable, due to their high variable costs and at the same time low costs for their construction, they are not used as base load power plants, but typically to cover peak loads .

See also

literature

  • Valentin Crastan , Electrical Energy Supply 2 , Berlin - Heidelberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-642-19855-7 .
  • Klaus Heuck / Klaus-Dieter Dettmann / Detlef Schulz, electrical energy supply. Generation, transmission and electrical energy for study and practice , 8th revised and updated edition, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-8348-0736-6 .
  • Panos Konstantin, Practical Guide to Energy Economics. Energy conversion, transport and procurement in the liberalized market . Berlin - Heidelberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-540-78591-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ base load . RP energy lexicon. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b Bernhard Adler, Modern Energy Systems - A Contribution to the Energy Transition . Berlin 2019, p. 7.
  3. ↑ Harald Rapp, Energy Supply in Transition. Hopes and facts about the energy transition , Berlin 2012, pp. 38–41.
  4. ^ Robert Carl Pietzcker et al .: Using the sun to decarbonize the power sector: The economic potential of photovoltaics and concentrating solar power . In: Applied Energy . tape 135 , 2014, p. 704-720 , doi : 10.1016 / j.apenergy.2014.08.011 .
  5. ^ Klaus Heuck / Klaus-Dieter Dettmann / Detlef Schulz, electrical energy supply. Generation, transmission and electrical energy for study and practice , 8th revised and updated edition, Wiesbaden 2010, p. 61.
  6. ↑ See Holger Rogall : 100% supply with renewable energies. Conditions for global, national and local implementation . Marburg 2014, p. 180f.
  7. ↑ Valentin Crastan, Electrical Energy Supply 2 , Berlin - Heidelberg 2012, p. 77.
  8. ↑ Valentin Crastan, Electrical Energy Supply 2 , Berlin - Heidelberg 2012, p. 387.