Key problems of gas-fired power plants participating in peak load regulation: A review

Abstract

The peak regulation capacity of gas-fired power plants has always been an important flexibility resource of the power grid. Under the guidance of carbon emission reduction, the coal power units are gradually shut down, making the role of gas-fired power plants more important. However, in practice, gas-fired power plants often fail to show satisfactory flexibility. The main reasons are as follows: (1) Part of the capacity mechanism fails to effectively encourage gas-fired power plants to provide reliable flexibility and (2) the unreliability of fuel supply for gas-fired power plants. Aiming at these problems, the current capacity mechanism in different countries is first summarised and the applicability of the capacity mechanism for gas-fired power plants under the government regulation and market-oriented environment is analysed, respectively. Then, the characteristics of power dispatching and gas dispatching are analysed to explore the internal reasons for the unreliable fuel supply in gas-fired power plants. Based on the above analysis, the gas-electric coordination mechanism adapted to different development stages is proposed to solve the problem that the flexibility of gas-fired power plants cannot be guaranteed. In summary, through the research of this study, it is found that the main reason for the limited flexibility of gas-fired power plants is the lack of coordination among multiple entities belonging to different energy systems, such as electricity and gas. The cooperation mechanism proposed is an attempt to realise the cooperation between the electric system and the gas system, which provides the reference for closer collaboration among multiple energy systems in the future.