A new energy trading platform (ETP) designed to help Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) harness privately owned reserve capacity and electricity storage services came online yesterday.
The platform makes it easier for private owners of electrical equipment, such as generators or power storage, to sell their energy resources to Taipower, effectively giving the state-run utility more flexibility and stability in the national grid.
“Suppose you are a factory owner with backup generators that hardly see any use,” said Wu Chin-chung (吳進忠), director in charge of power dispatching at Taipower. “When you are connected to the platform, that generator can become a part of Taiwan’s reserve margin and the owners get paid.”
Taipower already has existing deals in place with companies to purchase power storage and reward factories for time-shifting their power use to reduce peak usage rates.
The ETP platform would make future use of “private distributed electrical resources” quicker and more responsive, with an auction system that pays more in times of greater need, Wu said.
“We expect to consolidate a lot of diverse electric resources into our system and help maintain the stable operation of our grid, as well as ensure the fastest restoration of power in case of any accidents,” the company said in a statement.
Taipower already uses private electrical resources to match supply and demand, but, with the platform, more private owners are expected to join.
Energy storage systems are the fastest to respond, able to dispatch extra electricity to the grid within “one to 10 seconds,” Taipower said.
Others, such as generators, can start providing power to the grid within a half-hour, it said.
About 84.2 megawatts of “non-traditional reserve” are already on the books through individual contracts with Taipower.
More information can be found online at the ETP Web site at etp.taipower.com.tw.
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