Assessment Methodology Integrated Operations Hydroelectric Facilities with Renewable Energy Sources

Abstract

Integration of wind energy into the overall energy portfolio of any power system provides renewable energy and associated power and energy benefits. However, depending on
the resource mix of any given power system, integrating wind power can be difficult to manage, due to the uncertainty in forecasting wind and the variability of wind generation.
On this note, integration of wind power into a hydro-based system can have some advantages due to the possibility to utilize reservoir storage to offset the variability of wind and maximize benefits by re-shaping the wind energy into higher valued time periods.

However, difficulties of integrating wind into a hydropower-based system arise in determining how the existing system can accommodate wind power in an operationally efficient manner. To clearly understand and evaluate these integration issues, it is necessary to address the following:

• Cost of adjusting operations and providing reserve to accommodate wind energy.
• Adjustment to hydro operations to maintain existing operational constraints.

Hydroelectric systems are often quite complex and contain both seasonal and non-seasonal reservoirs, transmission and tie line interconnections along with significant hydraulic operational constraints.

This paper will present a rigorous methodology of assessing the detailed hourly operations of the mixed resource system, using a comprehensive Decision Support System, Vista DSSTM.

Case studies will be summarized for several recent applications. The case studies will cover the determination of the threshold limit for wind generation development, and the determination of the wind integration impacts and costs.