AESOP is Sunshine Hydro’s Advanced Energy Storage Optimisation Program. It is an innovative asset management tool that Sunshine Hydro uses as part of its project and capital finance modelling program for public utility organisations and privately owned pumped hydro facilities.
AESOP is used to design and operate Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES), including pumped hydro facilities in a way never seen before. It can benefit both new and existing facilities and develop financial data suitable for detailed financial analysis.
What sets AESOP apart from current simulation programs is its ability to utilise historical, current live, and forecast data into its decision-making matrix. The combination of this data being fed into AESOP allows it to accurately optimise the usage of the incoming energy it receives to attune to the current demands within contestable wholesale markets whilst accounting for future commitments. The capability to adjust a wide variety of variables within AESOP allows customers to optimise a pumped hydro facility to desired specifications.
AESOP is designed to add value to any pumped hydro or long duration energy storage system. The benefits generated by AESOP are maximised when it is used to optimise a project that has been converted into a Superhybrid ecosystem. This is a project that combines traditional hydro, wind, solar, electrolysis, liquefaction, and fuel cells. In this ecosystem, one of the roles of AESOP is to maximise the level of contractable 24/7 Carbon Free Energy (24/7 CFE) generated.
Using comprehensive historical data, AESOP provides engineers and IT professionals with tools to trial variable project design parameters to optimise the design of a Superhybrid. Results allow investment decisions to be validated with a high level of confidence.
Features:
AESOP focuses on maximising the 24/7 CFE required by industrial customers. AESOP applies multiple real-time optimisations to distribute incoming renewable energy to different parts of the Superhybrid in order to meet contractual requirements. At the same time, AESOP is also maximising revenue through opportunistic trading within contestable wholesale markets.
Features:
A Superhybrid™ is a system or process that combines multiple technologies that are not normally connected. Sunshine Hydro’s typical Superhybrid™ model includes wind and solar farms feeding into a pumped hydro project which is linked to a hydrogen generation plant. All components are orchestrated to work smoothly together using our AESOP control system.
Key components of a typical Superhybrid model include:
All the components of a Superhybrid solution make an important contribution and work together in this ecosystem to provide a reliable, contractible, 24/7 CFE output
Grid ancillary services are used to manage grid power systems safely, securely, and reliably. These services maintain key technical characteristics of the system, including standards for frequency, voltage, network loading, and system restart processes.
The electricity demand changes each day and typically peaks in line with breakfast time and dinner time each day. Fast responding generators can provide the power to meet these peaks. With a Superhybrid system, electricity can be diverted from various system components to meet this demand. This “peaking power” is needed to meet these regular patterns and increasingly to meet patterns related to variable energy availability.
Industry and community require a constant feed of electricity. Wind energy varies with wind conditions and solar energy is only available during sunny days. 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy (24/7 CFE) is a constant stream of renewable electricity that can be contracted and relied on all day every day. 24/7 CFE is renewable energy matched with demand every hour of every day.
24/7 CFE will be increasingly sought after as jurisdiction such as the European Union require that products sold within their borders be sourced from 24/7 CFE
Unlike traditional fossil fuel-based hydrogen, green hydrogen is produced through electrolysis of water using renewable power such as solar, wind, or hydropower which splits water’s two main elements hydrogen and oxygen producing green hydrogen. Hydrogen production is used in a Superhybrid primarily to provide a flexible load for managing renewable energy. The hydrogen produced can be considered a useful by-product.
Hydrogen is liquefied by reducing its temperature to −253 °C, similar to liquefied natural gas (LNG) which is stored at −162 °C. It is much cheaper to transport as a liquid however it is still a challenging task because of the low temperatures involved. Our projects may deliver liquid hydrogen.
This is a bi-product of the electrolysis of water using renewable energy.
A carbon offset refers to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), or an increase in carbon storage (e.g, through land restoration or the planting of trees), this is used to compensate for emissions that occur elsewhere.
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