Long Term System Planning for Large Scale Renewable Energy Integration Methodology Development

Abstract

Renewable energy (RE) generation is based on natural resources (e.g. solar, wind), which newlineby their inherent characteristics have spatial and temporal intermittency. Generation and newlinecapacity potential of these RE sources are subjected to geographical variation within a region newlineor country. Temporal variation ranges from seconds to seasons, and has different relevance newlineon the power system depending on the nature of the resource. Large-scale integration of these newlineresources introduces additional uncertainty to an existing system. This change in generation newlineparadigm underscores the need for additional flexibility to maintain reliable power system newlineoperation. newlineLong-term system planning activities need to capture RE resource variability by appropriate newlinespatial and temporal considerations to design future energy systems for large-scale RE newlinepenetration. Mathematical models used in these planning exercises adopt simplified spatial newlineand temporal resolution, which is often necessary to limit computational complexity. Spatial newlineresolution of these models are defined according to the economic or political boundary newlineof the study area (e.g. large-scale region/ state/ country), rather than RE resource zones. newlineThus, they do not capture intra-regional variability of RE potential at suitable spatial and newlinetemporal scale. Further, the number of time slices in these models are not adequate to address newlinetemporal variability of RE generation potential at a suitable resolution. Additionally, due to newlinethe lack of various technical constraints of system components, these planning models take newlinean aggregated approach to address the impacts of RE variability on system operation. These newlineissues lead to inaccurate quantification of future RE capacity and overall system portfolio. newlineTherefore, there is a need to develop new methods to address RE variability and its newlineoperational impact at the planning stage, for improved planning of future energy system newlineportfolio. Present research work contributes in this regard by developing methodological newlineapproaches to consider the intra-