Acciona is first to adjust

Acciona Energía is providing adjustment services to the Spanish electricity system by increasing the level of generation by wind power.

The company said it is the first to provide such services using renewables.

System operator Red Eléctrica de España (REE) manages system adjustment services, which aim to ensure a constant balance between energy generation and demand.

Traditionally, Acciona said, system adjustment services for the national grid have been provided by conventional technologies, such as thermal power stations or large-scale hydropower.

But, it added, the technological evolution of renewables and the development of prediction and management tools means they can also provide this service.

Acciona said it first offered the adjustment service based on wind power capacity on 28 February, at the request of REE.

“Instead of the usual situation, in which the system operator asks wind farms to limit their production when there is too much capacity in the grid, the opposite happened here,” the company said.

“Technically, it is much more complex: in just a few minutes, a series of wind farms managed by Acciona increased their generation capacity by more than 150MW in response to an instruction given by REE,” the company said.

It is currently in a trial phase to be accredited by REE to provide other adjustment services – in addition to the technical restrictions one – such as secondary and tertiary control and deviation management.

Image: an Acciona AW125 3000 wind turbine (Acciona)