Demand-Driven Biogas Plants in Poland - Potential and Growth Perspectives

In recent years, Poland has seen a rapid increase in installed capacity in the renewable energy sources (RES) sector. This increase mainly concerns weather-dependent sources such as PV and wind installations, whose intermittent operation destabilizes the Polish power system (PPS). The solution to fluctuations in PPS operating parameters are stable and controllable RES sources, among which demand-driven biogas plants (with an energy storage in the form of biogas) have a special development potential. The aim of this paper was to describe the construction and principles of operation of peak biogas plants and to analyze the possibilities of including them in the operation of PPS. The paper shows the fundamental differences between the operation of typical biogas plants (producing electricity and heat continuously) and demand-driven biogas plants, in which biogas production takes place continuously, while electricity production occurs periodically, during the highest demand for power during the day. It was found that demand-driven biogas plants are a promising alternative to the previously used coal-fired units, battery energy storage units and pumped-storage power plants and in the future they may act as a stabilizer of the National Power System, achieving available electrical power of up to 11.1 GW.