Work

The Potential of Small Modular Reactors to Provide System-Bearing Services in the Future Power Grid

Year: 2024

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: The future power grid comprises large shares of inverter-based resources (IBRs) dominated by solar and wind power. As a result, the grid's resilience in terms of voltage and frequency regulation capabilities can be significantly reduced. To deal with this unsolved challenge, there is a potential for small modular reactors (SMRs) to provide, in addition to electricity and heat, system-bearing services that, at a reduced cost, can enable higher penetration of renewables. This paper shows that the alternative system-wide ancillary service cost for physical inertia and short-circuit capacity can be approximately $20/MWh when using synchronous condensers (SCs) to enable a 100 % renewable energy system. SMRs can avoid these additional system costs and, in addition, significantly increase the grid strength when compared to the use of SC devices. Moreover, it is shown that multiple SMR units instead of large nuclear power plants significantly reduce the needed frequency reserves.

Source: IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Europe

DOI: 10.1109/isgteurope62998.2024.10863168

Authors: Jonas Kristiansen Nøland, Martin Hjelmeland, Magnus Korpås, Lina Bertling Tjernberg

Institutions: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Language: English

Topic: Power Systems and Renewable Energy

Subfield: Energy Engineering and Power Technology

Field: Energy

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Industry, innovation and infrastructure, Affordable and clean energy, Climate action

Open Access status: gold

OpenAlex ID: W4407361955

FWCI: 5.754

Cites: 18

Cited by: 7

Related to: 10