South Korea to promote micro-grid technology

South Korea surrounded by the sea, surrounded by many islands, in addition to Chinese tourists familiar Jeju Island, there Ganghwa Island, Jindo, Geocheon Island, Ulleungdo. In recent years, some islands have achieved energy independence, and these changes are the micro grid technologies that South Korea is promoting.

Microgrids are systems that can be used to power users in a given area with distributed power sources independent of existing large-scale transmission networks. These scattered sources of electricity can be solar or wind energy. If the national grid is the "Internet", micro-grid is a "local area network." In people's increasing dependence on electric energy and the diversification of new energy development means, microgrid is becoming an important direction for solving energy demand in the future.

The existing power transmission system is a one-way transmission from the power generation enterprise to the user, while the micro power grid is a two-way system connecting the power source and the power generation side. The producer and the consumer are integrated and the power consumer can also be the power generator. Unexpected energy can be delivered to microgrids in the area. The efficiency of microgrids is much higher than traditional grids, reducing the need to build large-scale high-voltage transmission lines and greatly reducing waste in transmission.

At present, the Korea Ministry of Industry, Trade and Industry Resources is promoting the "Independence of Energy Island" demonstration project in the islands of South Korea in order to expand business opportunities in the energy industry. In October last year, Gaza Island, west of Jindo-gun in Jeollanam-do, South Korea, achieved energy independence through microgrid technology. The island has four 100-kilowatt wind power plants and 314 kilowatts of power plants with an energy storage capacity of 3 MWh. Even in the absence of wind, electricity generated by solar power is sufficient for residents on the island and a surplus can be charged to the power station. After the power station is full, it can meet the electricity demand of 286 residents a day. Jin Jiushuo, who has been living on the island for a living, has opened a fishing restaurant. With the microgrid, his restaurant is equipped with three large freezers, and the previous electricity simply could not be brought up. With reserve power, many residents on the island have also begun to plan to carry out farming, aquatic products processing and refrigeration.

In addition to power generation and storage, have to talk about the micro-grid "brain" ?? energy control system. The system can determine the sunshine intensity and wind speed according to the future weather forecast, and control the amount of power generation and reserve power according to the past electricity record. According to reports, since the completion of the micro-grid on the island of Gaza, a total of 150 million won (about 840,000 yuan) of fuel costs have been saved, after which it is estimated that it will save 320 million won a year in generating costs.

For the future development of the microgrid, many countries, including South Korea, are optimistic. Last December, the U.S. energy specialist survey firm Navigant estimated that the global microgrid market will exceed $ 155 billion in 2023 and will drive the growth of related industries such as smart buildings, interactive systems and automatic control.

At present, the development and popularization of microgrid still face some problems: such as solar energy, wind energy and other renewable energy are not stable due to the weather. The investment in the construction of microgrid is huge. In Gaza, for example, the island invests 9.2 billion microgrids won. Although the development of microgrid is still in its infancy, in a certain sense, it possesses the features of today's Internet thinking and sharing economy. Its promotion and application will greatly change the user's power consumption mode and even reshape the entire energy industry.