Economic and Technical Evaluation of Flexible Power Generation Scenarios for a Biogas Plant

Abstract

Biogas plants can contribute significantly to the integration of renewable energy sources in the energy system due to their flexible operability. The storability of the energy carrier enables them to generate power in a demand-oriented way and to participate in electricity markets that focus on balancing power supply and demand. In this study process simulation was used to investigate the economic and technical effects of flexible power generation on an Austrian biogas plant that focuses on biomethane production. Three different power generation scenarios were evaluated considering participation in the electricity spot market and markets for control energy reserves, while continuously producing biomethane. The results show that no major technical adaptions are needed for flexible power generation but an appropriate support scheme (premium system) is required to make demand-oriented power generation economically viable. The determined required premium was 37.3-99.9 EUR/MWh depending on the power generation scenario.

Load response of biogas CHP systems in a power grid

“…Many studies have been published regarding the optimization of operational strategies, for example for the day-ahead spot market [9], by increasing the power [10] and storage capacity of biogas plants [10,11], by integrating heat pumps with CHP units [12] or by utilizing local resources ahead of central power plants [13,] or the profitability, by using thermal storage and Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology [14], by simulating the effects of providing positive secondary control energy with biogas plants [15], by comparing operation of plants using solid, liquid and gaseous biofuels and the legislative and market conditions in Germany [16], by simulating different operational scenarios of a biogas plat participating in the spot market and control energy reserves [17] or by conducting an economical and ecological assessment based on different biogas plant configurations [18], of CHP systems. In a previous study a demand response program for an industrial customer was implemented using stochastic programming to solve short-term self-scheduling problems for CHP systems and enable them to participate in the power market more successfully [19].…”

Comparison of results from life cycle assessment when using predicted and real-life data for an anaerobic digestion plant

“…So far, the amount of livestock manure treated by anaerobic digestion has been limited. In some countries, biogas is considered as a potential important contributor to a renewable energy system due to the possibility of flexible power generation [6]. Due to relatively low energy prices and a high share of renewable energy in Norway (more than 97% for electricity, and an overall share of 69.4% [7]), there has been less focus on the production of heat and electricity from biogas.…”