Analytical Assessment of Renewable Energy Sources and Energy Storage Concerning their Merits for the Electric Power System

Abstract

The two main characteristic attributes of power plants based on renewable energy sources (RES) like wind power (WT) or photovoltaic (PV) are the fluctuating power generation and the geographical location of installation. Thus, the RES feed-in is neither adaptive to the time characteristics nor to the geographical location of electric loads.However, these characteristic attributes are not yet considered in today’s market structure and RES promotion is usually based on energy production with no regard to local load curves or the location of installation. On the other hand, these two characteristic attributes lead to voltage and overload issues in the grid, expensive backup power plants and complex system operation.Therefore, this paper proposed an analytical assessment method for RES concerning their merits for the electric power system. The objective was to quantify and compare the merits of different RES installations both regarding time and geographical location. The approach comprised the analytical derivation of the assessment parameters and the application on different RES configurations including energy storage systems (ESS).The assessment showed increased merits for the electric power system, if RES are combined with ESS or with other RES installations to common grid coupling points. In this regard, the proposed assessment method helps to optimize grid integration, operation and control of RES and to promote new technologies like ESS.