Utility-scale Wind Power: Impacts of Increased Penetration

Intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, run-of-river hydro, tidal streams and wave fluxes present interesting challenges when exploited in the production of electricity, which is then integrated into existing and future grids. We focus on wind energy systems because they have an emerging presence, with new installed capacity approaching 8 GW annually. We survey many studies and compile estimates of regulation, load following and unit commitment impacts on utility generating assets with increasing wind penetration. Reliability (system reserve), observed capacity factors and the effective capacity (ability to displace existing generation assets) of wind energy systems are discussed. A simple energy balance model and some results from utility-scale simulations illustrate the existence of a law of diminishing returns with respect to increasing wind penetration when measured by wind’s effective capacity, fuel displacement or CO2 abatement. A role for energy storage is clearly identified. Finally, the scale of wind energy systems is shown to be large for significant energy production and preliminary evidence is reviewed showing that extraction of energy from the atmospheric boundary layer by such systems, when penetration levels are significant, may have potential environmental impacts.

Comfort-constrained distributed heat pump management

This paper introduces the design of a demand response network control strategy aimed at thermostatically controlled electric heating and cooling systems in buildings. The method relies on the use of programmable communicating thermostats, which are able to provide important component-level state variables to a system-level central controller. This information can be used to build power density distribution functions for the aggregate heat pump load. These functions lay out the fundamental basis for the methodology by allowing for consideration of customer-level constraints within the system-level decision making process. The proposed strategy is then implemented in a computational model to simulate a distribution of buildings, where the aggregate heat pump load is managed to provide the regulation services needed to successfully integrate wind power generators. Increased exploitation of wind resources will place similarly themed ancillary services in high-demand, traditionally provided by dispatchable energy resources that are ill-suited for the frequent power gradients that accompany wind power generation.Comment: 2011 International Conference on Smart Grid and Clean Energy Technologie

A continental-scale hydro-economic model for integrating water-energy-land nexus solutions

This study presents the development of a new bottom‐up large‐scale hydro‐economic model, Extended Continental‐scale Hydro‐economic Optimization (ECHO), that works at a sub‐basin scale over a continent. The strength of ECHO stems from the integration of a detailed representation of local hydrological and technological constraints with regional and global policies, while accounting for the feedbacks between water, energy and agricultural sectors. In this study, ECHO has been applied over Africa as a case study with the aim of demonstrating the benefits of this integrated hydro‐economic modeling framework. Results of this framework are overall consistent with previous findings evaluating the cost of water supply and adaptation to global changes in Africa. Moreover, results provide critical assessments of future investment needs in both supply and demand side water management options, economic implications of contrasting future socio‐economic and climate change scenarios, and the potential tradeoffs among economic and environmental objectives. Overall, this study demonstrates the capacity of ECHO to address challenging research questions examining the sustainability of water supply, and the impacts of water management on energy and food sectors and vice versa. As such, we propose ECHO as useful tool for water‐related scenario analysis and management options evaluation