With the growth of renewable energies, the relationship between energy consumption and its production has been transformed. In conventional energy produced through fossil fuels, it is produced on demand, starting up different types of power plants when they are needed because there is a greater or lesser demand.
However, renewable energies produce energy when the conditions are right, be it wind, sunlight, etc. This makes production decoupled from demand, generating production patterns whose curve in the case of photovoltaics is duck-shaped, but what does this curve really mean and how can energy storage solve it?
Table of Contents
What is the Duck curve?
Photovoltaics has grown a lot in recent years, considerably increasing installed power and continuing to expand. This means that in the hours of greatest photovoltaic production, a large part of the demand is covered with photovoltaic production and that even more energy than demanded is produced. This occurs mainly between 11 a.m. and 16 p.m., drawing the belly of a duck on the graph of the net charge.
In the afternoon, the photovoltaic begins to produce less, while demand increases, when people arrive at their homes, increasing the net charge in what is known as the afternoon ramp, which forms the neck of the duck, until reaching the peak in the afternoon and begin to taper towards night forming the head of the duck.
During the time of greatest photovoltaic production, the power plants stop, while once the photovoltaic production decreases, they begin to work intensively, so if we look at the curve of the percentage of non-renewable energy produced, it also follows this form of duck. The increase in installed power makes the curve more pronounced, so it is beginning to be known in regions like California, where they are somewhat more advanced, like a canyon curve.
What are the consequences of the Duck curve?
The duck curve is nothing more than the graphical representation of the relationship between our demand for energy and production through fossil and renewable fuels, especially photovoltaics. But the key is the impact of the consumption and production patterns they represent. The duck curve generates these situations that have negative consequences.
Price of energy at 0 and loss of production
The large amount of installed photovoltaic power means that in the hours of greatest production the price of energy tends to 0, situation that in Spain it has already been reached several times and will occur more frequently as the installed power increases. That prices are low is good for the consumer, but it means that if we have our photovoltaic installation to sell energy or for self-consumption, it loses profitability considerably.
The low price of energy means that more energy is produced than consumed, losing production that could be used at another time of higher demand and lower production. This situation also generates a much more volatile energy market.
network instability
Excess production not only affects prices, but also runs the risk of overloads and the need to stop the production of some photovoltaic modules and even installations. In regions like California, the law already penalizes the dumping of surplus during prime hours. This situation makes it necessary to have anti-spillage devices that also cause us to lose a lot of production from our self-consumption facility.
The stoppage of power plants and the great demand they have when there is no photovoltaic production can generate a much more unstable network. Large swings in demand and supply also produce a much more complex market and network to manage.
Why is energy storage the solution to duck curves?
Battery energy storage solves the root of the problem, we can decouple production from consumption, storing the energy that we don't need to use it when we want, but also, installing a smart battery like the Pixii Power Shaper that we distribute at Pebblex provides many more solutions.
Two options are the change in consumption habits, the application of which is practically impossible and its impact would be minimal, and the diversification of renewable sources, something that would help but with a limited impact, also given the great boom in photovoltaics.
Batteries allow us store the surplus of that photovoltaic production and sell it at times when there is no production and the prices are higher in the case of photovoltaic plants that meet the legal conditions, something known as arbitration.
but it can also be stored in self-consumption facilities to be consumed at other times where the cost of energy is more expensive and we do not have photovoltaic production. This is commonly known as load shift. The battery allows us to do with the surplus, but also with energy in cheaper time slots. Although with a smart battery we can do much more with that energy.
We can use the stored energy to cut demand peaks, which is known as Peak Shaving, meaning that when we have a demand for power that is higher than average for a certain time, the battery provides us with that excess power demanded, without the need to contract more power or suffer penalties.
Battery technology has evolved a lot and its performance and functions can be applied to both large-scale plants and industrial self-consumption facilities. They solve the problem, but are they really profitable? Its price has been significantly reduced and all the applications that smart batteries allow make it possible to take full advantage of them, generating a good return on investment.
Storage with BESS storage systems with large-scale and self-consumption smart batteries is, therefore, the most optimal and effective solution to solve duck curves and they are also capable of bringing additional benefits.
Specialists in energy storage with Batteries
Pebblex is a specialist in industrial energy storage, with intelligent solutions of high efficiency and scalability that adapt to any situation, guaranteeing great performance.
