Capacity credits of wind and solar generation: The Spanish case

Abstract

he integration of renewable energies in electrical power systems is a fully established fact, as well as its forecast for expansion planning in the upcoming decades. Its future expansion is expected to cover all generation, replacing the conventional thermal generation that currently participates in power systems. Therefore, the question that arises is whether renewable energy will be able to ensure the supply of electrical energy as it is presently, guaranteeing high availability at an affordable cost for all consumers. This increment in renewable penetration has a great influence on the reliability of the systems, mainly due to the great uncertainty associated with renewable technologies.This study arises from the need to know how the reliability of power systems will be affected, in terms of adequacy and flexibility. Adequacy is related to the capacity that the system needs to have in order to supply a certain demand, while flexibility is related to how the composition of that generation must be with the purpose of adapting the changes that occurs in demand. The knowledge of power system reliability is carried out through reliability analyses. Through these analyses, it is possible to assess which level of reliability future planned power systems will have, both medium and long term. This work develops the necessary methodology to carry out reliability evaluations that later will be applied to the proposed cases of studies to characterize the effect on the reliability of different technologies. To obtain a correct approach for reliability studies, in which the uncertainty of renewable energies is considered, it is required to apply a probabilistic analysis for each resource. This approach is complemented by the sequential Monte-Carlo calculation tool that is one of the most suitable for solving stochastic problems with a large number of random variables.

A systematic evaluation of wind's capacity credit in the Western United States

“…The IEEE Task Force on the CV of Wind Power summarizes the methods currently in use, suggests a recommended method, and lists some of the gaps in the literature 7 . Previous research suggests that many factors influence the CC of wind, including the share of installed wind capacity on the system, the method used to calculate CC, the underlying wind resource, and the number of years of weather data used 12–16,10,17–19 . A review paper finds that the CC of wind is often close to its average CF (25%–40%) when the share of wind power is small, but increasing the share of wind decreases the CC, especially in smaller systems 10 .…”

“…Research on the Irish system finds that the average CC of 1000 MW of wind is around 28% but falls to 14% for 4000 MW for a system with around a 5000‐MW peak demand 15 . On the Spanish system, wind exhibits a CC of 20%–30% and decreases with wind penetration, but the rate of decline with penetration seems to be lower than the rate for solar technologies 19 . An analysis of the Australian system shows wind yields a CC of 7%–24% but much lower (7%–9%) in the long run with continued wind deployment 17 .…”

A solar simulator numerical modeling for heat absorption phenomenon research in a parabolic trough collector

“…Unlike wind power, which is also very popular, solar energy is characterized by more proper correlation of time characteristics: generation potential and energy demand occurring in the countries power systems. 1 The literature on the subject is dominated by issues related to the search for more and more efficient solutions in photovoltaic solar cell technology. The development of this technology, mainly in the last two decades, 2 was accompanied by an increase in the energy efficiency of PV panels and a decrease in the cost of their production.…”

“…Various support mechanisms, often defined at central government levels, contribute to the promotion of green technologies. Unlike wind power, which is also very popular, solar energy is characterized by more proper correlation of time characteristics: generation potential and energy demand occurring in the countries power systems 1 …”

Equivalent Firm Capacity Assessment of HDR-PV Hybrid Power System: A Distributionally Robust Approach

“…By optimizing the dispatch of ESSs, the HPS as a whole is equivalent to a dispatchable power source so that the overall power generation can meet the power fluctuation requirements (Zhang L. et al, 2014;Dent et al, 2014;Sulaeman et al, 2016). Further, the reliability of HPS is improved, and the cost is reduced at the same time (Esmaili and Nasiri, 2009;Tapetado and Usaola, 2019). Ref (Song et al, 2012) improved the dispatchable power through the coordinated operation of the PV plant and the electrochemical energy storage device, thereby increasing the credible capacity of the HPS.…”