Dual-purposing telecom backup systems for cloud energy storage and grid ancillary services

摘要

With the rising rate of electricity prices and peak demand surcharges contributing to increased operational expenses for today's telecommunications (Telecom) companies, the utilization of existing assets can play a key role in the management of these costs. Through the intelligent management of backup power sources, such as DC power plants with existing battery backup systems and AC UPS systems, Telecom companies can leverage demand side management programs in an economic fashion with minimal investment required. This paper describes the methodology behind a smart network infrastructure providing Grid to Telecom (G2T) and Telecom to Grid (T2G) applications. Two different strategies are explored. In the short-term strategy, Telecommunication companies can utilize their existing asset base to perform demand side management with limited to no reduction in reliability of backup resources. In the medium to long-term strategies, upgrades to the existing systems in the areas of battery technology and topology selection of power converters are recommended to open up the opportunity to participate in more services such as spinning reserves, reactive power compensation, frequency regulation and harmonic filtering. At the conclusion of the paper, a case study that shows the profitability of a proposed Telecom to Grid system that participates in Ontario DR3 program.