Impact Evaluation of Wind Power Geographic Dispersion on Future Operating Reserve Needs

Abstract

This paper evaluates the potential of diverse wind power patterns to balance the global power output of wind farms using the concept of operating reserve assessment. To achieve this, operating reserve assessment models are utilized to evaluate bulk generation systems under several conditions of wind power geographic distribution. Different wind behavior patterns and wind power penetration levels are tested using a modified configuration of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Reliability Test System 96 (IEEE RTS-96). The results highlight that on a large country scale system with different wind characteristics, the diversification of wind behavior might be conducive to a compensation of wind power fluctuations, which may significantly decrease the need for system operating reserves. This effect is verified using probability distribution functions of reserve needs estimated by sequential Monte Carlo simulations (SMCS), such that useful information regarding generation capacity flexibility is drawn from the evaluations.