The viability of balancing wind generation with large scale energy storage

This paper studies the impact of combining wind generation and dedicated large scale energy storage on the conventional thermal plant mix and the CO2 emissions of a power system. Different strategies are proposed here in order to explore the best operational strategy for the wind and storage system in terms of its effect on the net load. Furthermore, the economic viability of combining wind and large scale storage is studied. The empirical application, using data for the Irish power system, shows that combined wind and storage reduces the participation of mid-merit plants and increases the participation of base-load plants. Moreover, storage negates some of the CO2 emissions reduction of the wind generation. It was also found that the wind and storage output can significantly reduce the variability of the net load under certain operational strategies and the optimal strategy depends on the installed wind capacity. However, in the absence of any supporting mechanism none of the storage devices were economically viable when they were combined with the wind generation on the Irish power system.

Research Highlights
► Energy storage would displace the peaking and mid-merit plants generations by the base-load plants generations.
► Energy storage may negate the CO2 emissions reduction that is due to the increased wind generations.
► Energy storage reduces the variation of the net load.
► Under certain market conditions, merchant type energy storage is not viable.