12th Australasian Aluminium Smelting Technology Conference

Queenstown, New Zealand 2018

CONTRIBUTION OF AN ALUMINIUM SMELTER TO

POWER GRID STABILITY
Loïc Maenner
TRIMET France, Rue Henri Sainte Claire Deville, CS 30114, 73302 Saint-Jean-de-
Maurienne Cedex, France
Loic.Maenner@trimet.fr

Abstract

The increase of the share of renewable energies in the European electricity production mix
makes power grids more and more challenging to manage due to the lower predictability of
these energies, in particular wind and solar power. In order to cope with this situation, French
grid manager RTE has put in place various power reserves to be able to constantly balance
energy consumption and production even at consumption peaks, production shortages or any
other unexpected major issue on the grid. Beyond electricity producers, big consumers’ role is
constantly increasing to supply these services.

This article presents the example of the Trimet Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne smelter which has
been actively developing for several years its short term consumption flexibility and provides
today a unique combination of four flexibility products: immediate interruption, load shedding
on very short notice, load shedding on day-1 notice and continuous frequency modulation.
Each flexibility product is presented, the way they work and interact with each other, the
technical modifications which were required to enable them, the impact of their activation on
the electrolysis process and how this impact is mitigated.

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 CONTRIBUTION OF AN ALUMINIUM SMELTER TO
POWER GRID STABILITY

Loïc Maenner
TRIMET France
Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne smelter

Introduction

• Development of wind & solar energies makes electrical power grid harder to manage

• Flexibility of consumption is a key lever to balance the grid and must develop further

• Aluminium smelters are a partner of choice for providing short-term consumption flexibility
- Baseload profile = available 7/7 24/24
- High consumption = big leverage

• TRIMET smelters at the forefront in Europe

- Illustration by the Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne example
- Active practice of four flexibility mechanisms in parallel

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 Presentation of TRIMET Aluminium

TRIMET has been an independent

family-run business for more than
30 years

ESSEN HAMBURG VOERDE 3100 employees over 8 sites

• 6 in Germany
• 2 in France

Turnover 1,9 B€
SAINT-JEAN-DE-MAURIENNE CASTELSARRASIN
Production 775 kt/y
• Primary 535 kt/y
• Recycling 240 kt/y

Complete and well balanced

product portfolio
GELSENKIRCHEN HARZGERODE (JV) SÖMMERDA (JV)

Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne smelter
Operating in the French Alps
since 1907

600 employees

Production 150 kt/y

60 AP18 & 120 AP30 cells

250 MW baseload power

Products
• Wire rod
• Rolling slabs
• Foundry ingots

Taken over by TRIMET in 2013

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 French and European energy transition are on the way
After a constant increase over last years, French
electricity consumption is expected to decrease … … but production mix will change drastically

Nuclear Renewable Fossil

Source : RTE Bilan prévisionnel 2017 – Scenario Ampere

Solar & wind production do not always match the

needs, example of France
… photovoltaïc production is higher in
Wind is blowing at night when consumption is lower … summer when consumption is lower

Typical winter day (06/01/2017)

Consumption (MW) Wind power production (%)

Photovoltaïc
Consumption
Source : EnR Project, ADEME-Energy Pool Power production

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Electrical power grid gets every year harder to manage

• Grid manager (RTE) must at all times balance electricity

production and consumption to keep frequency at 50 Hz

• Consumption pattern is quite well known, even if

electrical mobility will change the game

• From production side, renewables are often anti-cyclic

and less predictable

• What are the main levers ?

- increase/decrease of production
- develop exchanges possibilities with neighboring countries
- increase/decrease of consumption

Current consumption flexibility tools in France

Product Power Variation Delay Contract type

Load shedding peak days Variable 24 h Voluntary

Load shedding contracts 1750 MW <2h Yearly tender

Complementary reserve 500 MW 30 min Yearly tender

Fast reserve 1000 MW 13 min Yearly tender

Secondary reserve 500 ~ 1000 MW < 15 min Yearly tender

Primary reserve ~ 600 MW < 30 s Weekly tender

Interruptibility 1200 MW <5s Yearly tender

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Consumption flexibility at Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne

Product Power Variation Delay Contract type

Load shedding peak days Variable 24 h Voluntary

Load shedding contracts 1750 MW <2h Yearly tender

Complementary reserve 500 MW 30 min Yearly tender

Fast reserve 1000 MW 13 min Yearly tender

Secondary reserve 500 ~ 1000 MW < 15 min Yearly tender

Primary reserve ~ 600 MW < 30 s Weekly tender

Interruptibility 1200 MW <5s Yearly tender

Voluntary load shedding during peak days

15 peak days per year known with 24h notice

10 peak hours 7h-15h / 18h-20h

Load shedding 0 to 10% according to :

- potline temperature
- bath levels
- cell noise
- risk of activation of other mechanisms

Additional power before shedding if necessary

- 10%

During load shedding

- unsqueeze for stability
- continuation of operations

Recuperation of missing power during the night

10 h
Maximum done : 4 days in a row

Saving ~15.000 €/MW/y

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 Fast reserve
80 MW shedding with 13 minutes notice

Maximum 2 x 2 h /day

Yearly contract – occurrence 5-10 times/year

Automated procedure – manual if necessary

No preparation possible
- 35%
During load shedding :
- Unsqueeze for stability
- Stop of operations
- No purge tracking
- No automatic treatment of anode effects

2h Remuneration
- fix ~ 25.000 €/MW/y
- variable ~ 200 €/MWh

High penalties in case of failure of activation

Primary reserve / frequency modulation

Variation of DC power according to frequency
30

20

10
Grid frequency (Hz)
MW

0
49.6 49.8 50 50.2 50.4
-10

-20

-30
Frequency (Hz)

Continuous variation of consumption according to grid

frequency – helps to bring frequency back to 50 Hz
Power (MW)
DC power variation (up to +/- 30 MW) is achieved through
automatic amperage modulation of one or both potlines

98% of variation in range +/- 0,05 Hz = +/- 8 MW

Must always be performed on top of other flexibility

mechanisms

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Primary reserve / frequency modulation
Variations are centred on a short time = no energy issue

Adjustment necessary for process control (alarms)

Precise process impact still under study :

- Current efficiency
- Anode effect frequency
- Cell life-time
- Busbars movements

Offered through weekly European tender

High variability of remuneration, average ~ 110.000 €/MW/y

Interruptibility

• Last mechanism for grid manager before blackout

• Full stoppage without notice (< 5 s) of both potlines by grid manager (~ 220 MW)

• Maximum duration 1 hour

• Stop of operations

• Rare activation (1 in France over 3 years)

• Maximum remuneration 70.000 €/MW/y

• Very high penalties in case of failure of activation

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How to develop further flexibility ?

Additional busbars
for magnetic field ESSEN “virtual battery” project
compensation
Conventional operation: 290 MW baseload

Future option:

- flexibility by power modulation in the range of +/- 25%

- duration up to 48 hours

hot air  storage capability : 70 MW

growing
crust
ambient  storage capacity : 70 MW x 48h = 3.360 MWh
Heat exchangers air
+ process control

Full conversion of 1 potline is in progress

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 Conclusions

• Aluminium industry can play a key role to support energy transition by developing its
consumption flexibility

• Key challenges :
- Reliability of contracted flexibility
- Management of impacts on process and operations
- Superposition of flexibility products
- Internal challenge and training of teams

• Motivation is double :
- a responsibility as an electro-intensive industry
- an efficient way to decrease our net energy cost (-6 to -8 €/MWh)

Thanks for your attention

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