Capacity Value of Wave Power

Abstract

Although wave power installations are currently limited in number, the capacity value of wave power is of interest in power system planning. The capacity value of wind power has been studied in previous work, but the value for wave power is not known. Continuous time series characterizing the wave energy resource at multiple sites are generated from raw wave data. These time series are analyzed with a forced outage rate imposed for individual devices, as may be encountered by real wave energy farms. The capacity value of wave power at various sites is evaluated with reference to 500 MW of installed capacity. Portfolios are created, allocating wave power capacity to individual sites, with the impact of geographical aggregation being examined. The inter-annual variation for each portfolio is then determined in order to examine the robustness of the results. Comparison is also made between sites off the west coasts of Ireland and Portugal. The implications for the power system resulting from an increase in generation adequacy are discussed.