Selling Random Energy II
Abstract:
The State of California has set a target of 33% penetration from all renewable sources by 2020. Wind energy will play a key role in realizing such aggressive targets. At these deep penetration levels, integration of utility-scale wind production into the electricity grid poses serious engineering and market challenges. Today, wind energy is sold into the grid by legislative mandate and large subsidy. The variability in production is absorbed by scheduling operating reserves. How will we sell random energy tomorrow? In this talk, we investigate a portfolio of available means needed to achieve deep penetration of wind generation. We analyze various firming strategies, derive marginal values of these solutions, and study how much wind must be curtailed.