The Efficacy of Storage in Integrating Wind Energy in Regional Electric Systems

The study contributes to better understanding of the physical and financial implications of expansion of wind power generation. According to Dan Rastler, the EPRI Project Manager, “The project will focus on realistic market valuation of energy storage technologies with increasing renewable generation at different locations throughout the United States, across a range of future contingencies considering energy prices, fuel use, emissions and investment in new capacity.”

Results from the demonstrative study for ERCOT indicate that storage has definite beneficial role in smoothing the fluctuation in wind farm availability. The results also confirm the usefulness of storage in congestion management, and in deferring capacity investment. The study was conducted using LCG’s UPLAN Network Power Model and PLATO database for ERCOT.

In view of the encouraging findings in ERCOT, EPRI has decided to extend the scope of the study to other regions of the U.S. including New York ISO (NYISO), PJM, California and Midwest ISO (MISO). It also envisions the new study will cover several storage technologies such as Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES), bulk and distributed battery storage, liquid air energy storage (LAES), flywheel and other fast response storage devices.

“The study will look into the issue of gaining adequate transmission access to load centers, by optimal use of existing transmission and as well as by identifying appropriate new transmission investments,” says Srinivas Jampani, LCG’s lead consultant.

DOE Project Promotes Collaborative Planning for Balancing Wind Variability Across Regions: Integrating SPP Wind Energy Into SERC Electricity Markets

EPRI-LCG team is among several selected by DOE to explore innovative solutions for utility wind energy integration. This project focuses on integrating SPP wind energy into SERC electricity markets.

Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and LCG Consulting (LCG) a contract under the “20% Wind by 2030” challenge to explore innovative solutions for utility wind energy integration.

LCG will provide the key modeling support to analyze the benefits and costs of regional collaboration for integrating the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) wind energy into the Southeastern Electric Reliability Council (SERC) electricity markets.

“… through coordinating balancing operations between SPP and SERC, we expect the study will begin to quantify the value of integrating regional wind and transmission …,” says Sidart Deb, VP of Operations at LCG.

To determine the physical and financial benefit of inter-regional coordination between SPP and SERC, LCG will use the UPLAN Network Power Model and PLATO database to simulate the entire southeast region.

The results of the study shall answer key questions about the overall economics of building wind plants in SPP and sharing output with SERC to accommodate meet the upcoming federal renewable mandates and to control the variability and uncertainty of wind in availability in SPP.

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