A stochastic framework to evaluate the impact of agricultural load flexibility on the sizing of renewable energy systems

Abstract

Pumping of water for agriculture can be a flexible component of electric demand. In this study, a framework that involves scenario based stochastic programming models is developed to examine the effect of load shifting on the renewable energy system sizing for agricultural load. With the help of this framework, alternative load shifting policies are evaluated to observe how the intrinsic flexibility of agricultural load reduces the amount of investments while designing a renewable system. Using real data from India’s Gujarat region, solar and wind cases are evaluated separately to understand the coherency between these sources and the agricultural demand. The value of using a dispatchable source to help with the intermittency of the renewable sources in the systems is discussed. It is also shown that energy storage can be a convenient control mechanism for the integration of renewables; however, is an expensive substitute for demand response programs for agricultural load. Benchmarks for the incentive amounts that can be provided for alternative load shifting policies are presented.