The importance of gas infrastructure in power systems with high wind power penetrations

Joseph Devlin,Kang Li,Paraic Higgins,Aoife Foley

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.10.150

Abstract

Gas fired generation currently plays an integral support role ensuring security of supply in power systems with high wind power penetrations due to its technical and economic attributes. However, the increase in variable wind power has affected the gas generation output profile and is pushing the boundaries of the design and operating envelope of gas infrastructure. This paper investigates the mutual dependence and interaction between electricity generation and gas systems through the first comprehensive joined-up, multi-vector energy system analysis for Ireland. Key findings reveal the high vulnerability of the Irish power system to outages on the Irish gas system. It has been shown that the economic operation of the power system can be severely impacted by gas infrastructure outages, resulting in an average system marginal price of up to €167/MWh from €67/MWh in the base case. It has also been shown that gas infrastructure outages pose problems for the location of power system reserve provision, with a 150% increase in provision across a power system transmission bottleneck. Wind forecast error was shown to be a significant cause for concern, resulting in large swings in gas demand requiring key gas infrastructure to operate at close to 100% capacity. These findings are thought to increase in prominence as the installation of wind capacity increases towards 2020, placing further stress on both power and gas systems to maintain security of supply.

Highlights

Due to the mass adoption of renewable energy, wind in EU member states, the importance of gas fired generation is continually highlighted [1]
In markets with high penetrations of wind power, gas fired generation has been responsible for maintaining system supply and demand balance, accounting for the residual demand not fulfilled by wind and reacting to sudden changes in wind output
Due to the high penetrations of natural gas fuelled generating units and installed wind capacity, the Single Electricity Market (SEM) was chosen as the test system

Summary

Introduction

Due to the mass adoption of renewable energy, wind in EU member states, the importance of gas fired generation is continually highlighted [1]. While the installation of renewables reduces reliance on imported fossil fuels in the long term, the high penetration of stochastic energy sources such as wind results in challenges for. In markets with high penetrations of wind power, gas fired generation has been responsible for maintaining system supply and demand balance, accounting for the residual demand not fulfilled by wind and reacting to sudden changes in wind output. Wind power has been shown to gain fuel mix share at the expense of gas fired generation resulting in large decreases in gas unit capacity factors [5]. The resulting decline in capacity factor does not attribute less importance on gas plant, but signals a paradigm shift in electricity market operation [6]

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion