Starting Power Units in Cooperation with Renewable Energy Sources

Abstract

The article presents the development trends in the electricity generation market. Attention is paid to the strongly developing renewable energy sources (RES). For example, results developed for the power sector in Germany are quoted. Besides undoubted gains from such power sector development, also pointed out are some risks for conventional power generation, due to the nature of operation of these two generation modes. Based on the results of an analysis of the body of a high-power steam turbine’s HP part, a way of creating cooperation and mutual complementarity of these two types of generation sources is presented. To determine the conditions for this cooperation, the results of numerical simulation with elastic-plastic adaptations of the material were used. This branch of mechanical engineering, with numerous applications in other industries, has not found any deeper application in the energy sector, even though the Polish school of elasticity had the leading status in the world and is still recognized today. Appropriate application of the shakedown phenomenon enables faster starts, and hence the mutual coexistence of large steam units with developing renewable energy farms, whose outputs are strongly dependent on weather conditions.