Multi flexibility options integration to cope with large-scale integration of renewables

November 26, 2018

IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy

Conventional electrical networks are slowly changing. A strong sense of policy urge as well as commitments have recently been surfacing in many countries to integrate more environmentally friendly energy sources into electrical systems. In particular, stern efforts have been made to integrate more and more solar and wind energy sources. One of the major setbacks of such resources arises as a result of their intermittent nature, creating several problems in the electrical systems from a technical, market, operation and planning perspectives. This work focuses on the operation of an electrical system with large-scale integration of solar and wind power. In order to cope with the intermittency inherent to such power sources, it is necessary to introduce more flexibility into the system. In this context, Demand Response, Energy Storage Systems and Dynamic Reconfiguration of the system are introduced and the operational performance of the resulting system is thoroughly analyzed. To carry out the required analysis, a stochastic MILP operational model is developed, whose efficacy is tested on an IEEE 119-bus standard network system. Numerical results indicate that the joint integration of various flexibility mechanisms into the system can support a seamless integration of large-scale intermittent renewable energies.