Toward an Extended AC OPF-Based Approach to Wind Power Integration and Pricing

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter is motivated by the difficult questions concerning the integration and operation of wind and solar power plants in the existing electric power systems. It describes how the value of these new resources critically depends on their locations and on how the dispatchable equipment is operated. It is suggested that the most efficient and reliable utilization of existing assets requires on-line resource management as system conditions vary. An extended AC Optimal Power Flow (AC XOPF) is used as a means of computing such online resource management. Illustrations of value brought about by adding new wind power plants in the islands of Flores and São Miguel are provided. It is also illustrated how short-term efficiency measured in terms of total generation cost depends on optimizing both real power generation and voltage-controllable equipment. It is finally shown that different pricing methods, O&M cost- and locational marginal price (LMP)-based approaches in particular, have very different implications on capital cost recovery of wind power plants, electricity tariffs to the customers, total generation cost, and the grid congestion cost. These findings point into the need for technology-agnostic incentives to all candidate technologies which contribute to enhanced performance.KeywordsReactive PowerWind PowerPower FlowReal PowerOptimization SensitivityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.