Storace, StefanStefanStoraceSchmitz, GerhardGerhardSchmitz2022-03-172022-03-172011International Gas Research Conference Proceedings 3 (): 2011-2032 (2011)http://hdl.handle.net/11420/12016Most of the world wide electric energy demand is generated by the use of fossil resources in central large-scale power plants. With the global increasing energy requirement and at the same time decreasing energy resources sustainable alternatives to the conventional energy supply will become necessary. Not at last also because of the rising air- and climate stressing emissions. An important step in this interrelation to achieve an enduring electrical power supply is the development of a flexible and smart grid in order to allow the integration of a high contingent of renewable energies. The reason for the necessity of a dynamic grid lies therefore in the volatility of the availability of for example hard predictable wind or solar energy. In the same way it is important to increase the energy efficiency of future power plants using fossil resources compared to today's facilities. A concept, which allows the realisation of both requirements, is the combined generation of electricity and heat in local gas driven cogeneration units, installed in single - or multi - family houses. Whereas the single units are connected and controlled via a centralised data connection to a highly dynamic and efficient virtual power plant in order to generate global synergy effects of this local constellation of the units. At this connection the heat product of the combustion process can be used directly on location while the generated electricity can be feed synchronised into the public grid. With this on the one hand the overall efficiency of the cogeneration unit lies at around 90% and on the other hand the localisation of the units with its very short start-up phases enables to establish a highly dynamic grid where the electricity is generated swarm - like during times of high demands in respectively specific regions. The research activities in this interrelation supported by LichtBlick, a German supplier of electric energy and natural gas in cooperation with the Institute of Thermo - Fluid Dynamics of the Hamburg University of Technology refer to the analysis, simulation and evaluation of gas driven cogeneration units centrally controlled within a virtual power plant. The subject - matter is the analysis of the system requirements of a cogeneration system under economical and environmental boundary conditions. To reproduce the complexity of the different influencing factors from the technical characteristics of the single unit up to the global energy economics a dynamic simulation environment is applied which allows to establish thermal, electrical as well as economical models. The results of the examinations are therefore based on the simulation language Modelica, whereas all developed models were calibrated with experimental data from corresponding manufactures. They show the optimal dimensioning of the cogeneration unit itself as well as the dimensioning of the necessary buffer storage in order to uncouple the generation of electricity from the heat demand of the examined building. Based on this holistically consideration and the aim to make accessible a high potential of customers by minimising the footprint of the cogeneration system technological alternatives to the commonly used water buffer storage, like the latent heat buffer storage are compared in order to evaluate the feasibility of a volume reduction without a loss of capacity or performance. As a further possibility to uncouple the electricity generation from the heat demand and in the course of an integral local energy supply different concepts for the usage of an additional electro chemic storage in interconnection with a cogeneration unit and a heat buffer storage are demonstrated, too.enPhysikTechnikIngenieurwissenschaftenConference PaperOther