ALFRED reactor and hybrid systems: A test case

Future electricity generation will likely rely on renewable energy sources with consequent power intermittency and grid instability issues that will need to be compensated for. In this work, a model of a Generation IV small modular reactor has been developed in order to study its capabilities as a grid stabilizer. The plant model has been developed in Dymola and exported in the Simulink environment for the control strategy. The hybrid system considered couples a lead-cooled fast reactor to a desalination plant, an energy storage system, renewable energy farms, a variable electrical load, a local grid, and an external interconnected grid. Different desalination plants have been considered. Reverse osmosis has proven to be the most suitable option when coupled with energy production systems. Different configurations of the hybrid system have been considered showing a higher degree of load-following capabilities for the nuclear plant studied.