Although PowerMatching city was officially opened in April this year (2012), it had to wait for the heating system to show its full potential. Last september, when the days got shorter and the nights colder, the heat demand of the households started to increase, requiring the micro-CHP and heat pump units to provide heat. Using thermal buffers filled with 200 liters of water, the flexibility of these systems is used to optimize the system.

The first measurement campaign involved the reduction of imbalance caused by a wind turbine. This imbalance is caused by the difference between its predicted power output (24 hours ahead) and the realized power output as shown in the figure below.

Imbalance is caused by the day-ahead forecasted power being not equal to the realized power of a wind turbine.

The PowerMatcher technology was used to coordinate the CHPs and heat pumps to compensate this imbalance. Reduction of imbalance is benificial for everyone. There are less costs for the operator of the wind turbine, as imbalance is normally compensated by (expensive) gas fired turbines. Furthermore, reduction of imbalance is also a business opportunity for the end-customers of CHPs and heat pumps as they can share in these savings. During a two-week measurement campaign, the PowerMatching City cluster was able to reduce the imbalance of a single 15 kW wind turbine by 58%.

Information More information about the experiment in Hoogkerk can be found at http://www.powermatchingcity.nl.