What Is a Spinning Reserve and Why Is it Important?
Energy storage and readiness are crucial to continuity for utility grids. A spinning reserve provides a store of energy that is online but not loaded, synchronized with the grid, and ready to respond within 10 minutes – if not even sooner. There are various types of spinning reserves. As energy technologies improve and integrate, these reserves play a key role in keeping our power grids operating.
Here’s everything you need to know about the spinning reserve and what it means for combined power plants.
Need help with your spinning reserve or another part of your power plant? Make APG your partner. Contact us now for more information.
Challenges to Energy Production
These days, energy is produced from a number of resources. As new technologies emerge and more energy is consumed, ensuring energy availability can be complex. The introduction of solar energy brought predictive research tools that have benefited other areas of energy production and highlighted the importance of energy storage and availability.
Power plants that have generated energy for decades are on the front lines, ensuring the availability of power to consumers while merging new technologies with well-established ones. Researchers and utilities work together in the industry to analyze challenges and develop solutions as technologies evolve. Some of the most important results of this work have been around the issue of storage and availability of energy for uninterrupted distribution.
One of the most significant challenges for power plants is the potential loss of a large generator. This means all generators in the system must have some immediate reserve capacity. This is why there is so much attention focused on storage and availability of energy to support continued operation.
The consequences of a generator loss or other interruption can be extremely costly, and the disabling effect extends beyond the plant to the community and, potentially, the environment. So both power plants and researchers take reserves very seriously, wisely working together to meet evolving challenges with forward-thinking solutions. There are many moving parts within this system, including different reserves to address all stages of correction.
Types of Reserves
There are three levels of reserves that work together in a shortfall. The spinning reserve is the first to respond to the signal.
- Spinning Reserve – Supply that is online but not loaded. A spinning reserve is synchronized with the grid and can respond within 10 minutes. Some spinning reserves respond within seconds. Spinning reserves are the first to respond in a shortfall.
- Supplemental Reserve – Supply that is offline or a block of interruptible load that can be available within 10 minutes. The supplemental reserve is not synchronized with the grid, unlike the spinning reserve. It is the second reserve used after spinning reserves are implemented.
- Backup Supply – Can be available within an hour.
What Is a Spinning Reserve?
Also referred to as 10-minute spinning, synchronous reserve, responsive reserve, or contingency reserve, a spinning reserve is a backup power supply that rotates at a speed that will generate power at the exact same frequency as that of the grid power.
It remains online but unloaded, ready to respond rapidly to a shortfall. Within minutes, even seconds, of receiving a signal from the grid, the spinning reserve is ready to begin generation. Spinning reserves are maintained to remain on “hot standby.”
Common sources of spinning reserve include gas combined-cycle turbines; gas combustion turbines; hydropower; and oil, coal, or gas steam turbine units that are already providing some energy from part of their capacity but can be ramped up within 10 minutes to provide additional energy.
Spinning reserves have a strong reputation for reliability. This is partly because utilities have used and maintained them as common practice. As they’re the first responders in a power shortfall, their reliability is a major factor in their continued implementation. The availability of power is crucial to both immediate and future sustainability.
Why Is the Spinning Reserve Important?
Power shortfalls can happen for a myriad of reasons. The power grids we rely on become more and more complicated as technology progresses, and the potential challenges must be met with solutions that are proven and dependable.
Most importantly, shortfalls and losses are unpredictable to a degree. This places significance to the response system beyond a basic standard of reliability. Proven consistency in the precision of synchronized performance ensures predictable results.
Traditional generators can take hours to “heat up,” or return to working capacity. The capability of the spinning reserve to remain on “hot standby,” synchronized and ready to respond to a signal from the generator, is vital to continued functioning and power generation.
Unexpected load changes can happen for many reasons. Regardless of the cause, spinning reserves reliably and rapidly respond to any load changes with precision. Energy availability has never been more crucial, and consistent performance is the key to maintaining availability.
The Future of the Spinning Reserve
Energy technology offers many options these days. Rather than replacement, there has been collaboration and smart integration, recognizing the importance of proven reliability in power generation. This means the availability of both established and newer energy sources. The spinning reserve has a solid performance reputation in key areas of power production.
The foreseeable future definitely holds a relevant spot for the well-established and widely used spinning reserve, along with the supplemental and backup reserves, and the systems they support, all to provide consistent and efficient power to consumers.
Let APG Help Maintain Your Spinning Reserve
Whether you need maintenance on your spinning reserve, repairs on a steam turbine, upgrades on a gas turbine, or any other energy solutions for your power plant, Allied Power Group (APG), can help.
Based out of Houston, Texas, we help clients worldwide with customized power solutions, including component repair, 3D additive manufacturing, rotor repair, replacement parts, fuel nozzle repair, plant and field services, and much more.
Want to make APG your power partner? Contact us today by clicking here or calling either 281-444-3535 or 888-830-3535. Let us put our years of experience to work in your favor.