Dong Energy and its Faroese partner SEV have launched what they believe is a unique smart grid system at Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands.

Read more about DONG Energy on www.stateofgreen.com

Some of the world's best wind resources

Nestled between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, halfway between Norway and Iceland, the archipelago of the Faroe Islands has considerable average wind speeds of 10 meters per second.

The high and reliable winds combined with the country's remote location mean wind energy on the Faroe Islands is significantly cheaper than the existing thermal generation, with wind turbines on the islands working twice as well as they would onshore in Denmark.

Groundbreaking smart grid innovation

The Faroe Islands is the first place in the world where a virtual power plant is used to deliver fast frequency demand response, which can restore balance in an island power system by decoupling large industrial units, automatically, and in less than a second, from the main power system and thereby avoids systemic blackouts.

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This is a ground breaking innovation within the development of smart grids, says DONG Energy, and may prove to be key in islands’ as well as nations’ moves towards more renewable energy, whilst maintaining high levels of supply security.

A virtual power plant system

Designed to protect against sudden power failures, or decreases in power production, the virtual power plant system 'Power Hub' developed by DONG Energy, will provide the Faroe Islands with a power energy supply that will allow them to integrate the five-fold increase in wind generation planned over the next two years.

Learn more about DONG Energy's 'Power Hub' system

EU's largest R&D energy project to date

Developed in collaboration with Energinet.dk, Frauenhofer IWES, and Red Eléctrica de España, Power Hub has been used as demonstration platform within the scope of the EU's FP7 TWENTIES Project. This is the EU’s largest R&D energy project to date with a total budget of €56.8 million, and a contribution by the European Commission of close to €32 million.

Read "In Focus: Smart Grid Hub" on State of Green

Smart grids play key role in green transition

Launching the smart grid innovation Evert den Boer, Senior Vice President of International Sales at DONG Energy said:

“Smart grid solutions are the future and will play an important role in Europe’s green transition. This bears witness to the solution’s replication potential and we are already exploring how it can be commercialised.”

So​urces: www.modernpowersystems.com and www.businesgreen.com

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