Norwegian pumped hydro for providing peak power in a low-carbon European power market - Cost comparison against OCGT and CCGT

This paper presents an analysis of the cost of providing peak generation from new OCGT, CCGT and Norwegian pumped hydro plants in a European power system with high penetration of wind and solar power. A method for calculation of the Levelized Cost of Peak Generation (LCPG) is proposed, which builds on the well-established metric Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE). Results from a case study shows that building new reversible pumping stations between existing reservoirs in the Norwegian hydro system are economical advantageous over new CCGT and OCGT plants in Northern Europe, taking into account additional costs of subsea cables across the North Sea and corresponding reinforcements of the mainland grid. The study also shows the importance of giving interconnectors access to capacity markets across borders to obtain as low cost as possible for firm capacity in a future European system dominated by variable renewable production

User experience with on-line predictive river flow regulation

A control strategy based on adaptive prediction and a receding horizon controller is used to regulate the river flow-rate in Suldalslågen in the Ulla-Førre production system on the south-west coast of Norway. The adaptive prediction of the unregulated inflow used precipitation data and flow-rate data from a stream in the catchment area. In addition, a recursive estimation algorithm is used to estimate the stationary gains of the parallel transfer function models which have the catchment area data as input and the unregulated inflow as output

An Implementation of Estimation Techniques to a Hydrological Model for Prediction of Runoff to a Hydroelectric Power-Station

Parameter and state estimation algorithms have been applied to a hydrological model of a catchment area in southern Norway to yield improved control of the household of water resources and better economy and efficiency in the running of the power station, as experience proves since the system was installed on-line in the summer of 1978