Undergraduate Level Contest Winner

First-place went to the team led by Henry Eads of Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas. Team Members included Max Morgan and Aaron Hall.

Abstract - The project design which included the addition of solar to a wind farm and then considering battery storage, served to establish a facility with a higher capacity factor that has more stable generation over the course of 24 hours to better match the load demand requirements of the market. The result of the analysis was that there are a great number of expansion scenarios that are quite profitable; however, the most profitable scenario, interestingly enough, is to do nothing. To determine if there was a way to have a non-zero optimal expansion, the team experimented with different expansion scenario parameters. The team determined that selling price for energy was the most significant contributing factor to modifying the optimal expansion scenario. It is clear to the team that different price schemes will result in different optimal expansion scenarios and the team's software can be used to determine the best selling price for energy.

Graduate Level Contest Winner

First-place went to the team led by Franklin Quilumba of The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas. Team Members included Meng Liu, Piampoom Sarikprueck, Chin-Chu Tsai, Suratsavadee Korkua and Xueyang Cheng.

Abstract - Renewable energy sources for electricity production are of great interest since they promise to contribute to objective of energy independence and air quality. In the study, the feasibility and potential for renewable energy co-generation in West Texas were examined with a possible inclusion of battery storage facility. The analysis performed in the study showed that it was feasible for the King Mountain Wind Farm to accommodate a PV power plant in a co-generation system, assuming government subsidies were received. The study estimated the size of a government subsidy needed to make the battery system economical. Without government subsidies, in this setting battery storage does not appear economical. Renewable energy co-generation can contribute substantially to global energy needs. In the coming years, increasing electrical rates and increased necessity for clean power will continue to improve the feasibility of implementing solar PV systems at these sites.

Undergraduate Team: Lamar University.

Graduate Teams: University of Texas at Arlington, Baylor University, and Texas Tech University.

Renewable Electric Power Generation

Introduction

The Fourth Annual Student Design Contest for IEEE Region 5 graduate and undergraduate students sponsored by CCET and IEEE Region 5 dealt with smart grid/renewable energy projects and, in line with our real world focus, required a mastery of engineering economics.

Summary

Unlike previous years where designs were focused on specific pieces of equipment (e.g., devices to predict transformer failure), this year we asked the student teams to design a power system enhancement to compliment an existing wind farm. The design would add battery storage and solar photovoltaic arrays, and consider the adequacy of supporting infrastructure (e.g., substations, inverters,) in order to improve the load factor of utility scale renewable energy to the grid and evaluate overall economics.

Problem Statement

For all of their advantages, renewable electric power generation has inherent limitations. For solar, the limitation is that the resource is not available at least half of the day. For wind, the limitation is the variability in the wind speeds and the fact that wind speeds are often highest when demand for electricity is lowest (at night). Various forms of energy storage result in efficiency losses and require large outlays of capital compared to the gas fired “peaking” unit alternative.

Moreover, the most attractive sites for wind and solar are often far removed from the demand centers thus requiring new and expensive transmission lines. Because the transmission lines must be sized to move peak power from the generation sources to the demand centers, the variability of wind and solar results in a low load factor for the transmission lines (and hence an uneconomic use of a major capital expense).

There appears to be a solution that addresses all of these problems. It is this solution that we are asking the students to evaluate through a general design of a “renewables co-production and storage facility” as opposed to either a stand-alone wind farm or solar farm.

Possible Solution

Because of the complementary nature of wind and solar (solar is available only during the day and wind is most available at night), and recent advances in the efficiency of battery storage, it might be economically attractive to combine wind and solar where there is high availability of both resources at the same site in order to increase the load factor and reduce the variability of supply. Moreover, if sufficient land has been leased and supporting infrastructure is already in place (e.g. roads, meteorological stations, maintenance and communications facilities, security, substations), the economics of adding solar PV to an existing wind farm appear to be attractive.

Over the past decade in west and northwest Texas, wind farms totaling 10 GW have been constructed. This wind resource area is also a good solar resource area, unlike foggy coastal areas or cloudy mountain tops in other parts of the US which are wind only resources. Because land is relatively cheap, the wind farm developers often lease considerably more land than is required in order to provide room for adequate spacing between turbines and space for wind farm expansions in the future.

To transport this power from the thinly populated wind resource zone in west and northwest Texas to the demand centers in central and east Texas, the Public Utility Commission of Texas has authorized high voltage transmission lines costing $5 billion. Construction on these lines is underway.

Student Contest Design Parameters

Taking into account these “realities on the ground” discussed above, the student teams were asked to evaluate an existing wind farm and develop a hypothetical expansion that would add solar and energy storage so as to optimize the renewable resources and demand patterns in the ERCOT region. The King Mountain Wind Farm near McCamey, Texas was selected by CCET as a potential real world example of renewable co-production facility. CCET contacted NextEra Energy, the owner/operator of the King Mountain wind farm, to determine if they would cooperate in the student contest by allowing the students access to data on the facility to design a hypothetical expansion to evaluate the economics of renewables co-production.