July 31, 2024|General

Challenges of power grids – and a way out?

Over 30 years ago, the idea of photovoltaics was often ridiculed. The common opinion was, "Electricity comes from the socket, not from your own roof." At that time, power grids were designed for point-to-point connections where power plants delivered electricity directly to consumers. Renewable energy producers like PV systems or wind power were not part of the grid – nor were they considered in its design.

However, times have drastically changed. The demand for electricity is continuously rising as more devices and applications require power. The Austrian power grids (with approximately 7,000 km of high-voltage transmission lines) and the German grids (with about 37,000 km of transmission lines) had to adapt to entirely new conditions. Today, there are additional feed-in points at almost every branch in the form of PV or wind power plants. These changes have necessarily led to adjustments and also sparked fears.

Curtailment of renewables

In Germany, there was a time when PV systems were required to feed only 70% of their generated energy into the grid. This led to the wastage of energy, which is obviously nonsensical. In some countries, it is now not even allowed to feed surplus PV energy into the grid because the networks are overloaded (for example, in Upper Austria).

But there are solutions to tackle these challenges and relieve the grids while retaining the generated energy with the customer. One widely discussed option is the battery storage, which can store energy from day to night. However, these storages are often already fully charged by noon, which does not entirely solve the problem.

Good to know

A 300-liter hot water storage can store more PV energy than a commercial battery. Need an example? To heat 1 liter of water by 1 degree, an energy amount of 1.16 Wh is required. For instance, a storage tank with 300 liters heated from 10 °C to 60 °C can store 17.4 kWh of energy.

The highest self-consumption through battery storage and heating element

Therefore, the combination of battery storage and hot water storage with a linearly controlled PV heating rod offers a sensible solution. The key is that the heating element can be continuously regulated through intelligent control, which assigns energy to the heating rod depending on the PV surplus. This is the only way to achieve maximum self-consumption. An additional advantage is the system openness of my-PV, which allows for the easy integration of existing battery storages into a photovoltaic heat solution – because the battery storage should be prioritized, followed by the heating. This relieves the grids, increases self-consumption at the customer's end, and benefits everyone involved, not least the customer by avoiding higher grid fees.

How expensive is a photovoltaic heating system?

With material costs of less than €1,000, self-sufficiency can be increased with a PV system, relieving both heating and power grids. my-PV offers suitable solutions to optimize and sustainably enhance self-consumption.

The advantages at a glance:

Grid relief: The combination of battery storage and hot water storage reduces the burden on power grids.
Increased self-consumption: A higher portion of the generated energy is used by the customer, lowering operating costs.
Sustainability: The use of renewable energies is optimized, actively contributing to the energy and heat transition.

Innovative solutions from my-PV help to take the next step towards a sustainable and energy-efficient future. How could this step look with our products?

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