Diversifying wind power in real power systems

One method to reduce wind variability is to diversify the wind power resource by interconnecting wind resources across a larger geography. This study uses a modified version of mean-variance portfolio optimization (MVP) to assess the potential for diverse wind to reduce the variability of wind. A one year unit commitment and economic dispatch model of the U.S. Midwest is used to understand the value of the reduced variability. The model assesses four different wind portfolios, ranging in diversity, of two wind power penetrations (10% of total system load and 20%). Employing MVP, the variance in the ramp rates decrease by 50% with a 4% increase in capacity in the 20% wind penetration and a 2% increase in the 10% penetration. With a 20% wind penetration, decreasing the ramp rate variance can reduce curtailment from 5% to 0.1%. In the absence of significant curtailment, decreasing the ramp rate variance reduces the proportion of conventional generation required for ramping. However, the impact on total production cost and emissions from conventional generation is complicated by complexities of the power system, including transmission constraints and the time of day of ramping.