Renewable and Storage Integration
PSO offers unique capabilities for renewable integration studies through the use of decision cycles, sub-hourly simulation and the explicit modeling of the impact of uncertainty and variability of renewable resources on power system operations. ENELYTIX data support includes 5-minute wind profiles based on historical weather scenarios for thousands of locations.
Case Studies
THE BRATTLE GROUP USES PSO TO ASSESS VALUE OF DISTRIBUTED STORAGE IN TEXAS
As projections for the installed cost of battery systems is dropping, Oncor Electric Delivery Company wanted to explore the economics of grid integrated storage deployment in Texas. The Brattle Group used PSO (with ENELYTIX) to calculate expected realized system costs and wholesale energy and ancillary-service revenues under various weather conditions. The study found that while there were significant benefits from storage deployment, storage investments could not be undertaken at an efficient scale solely by merchant developers in the Texas wholesale market. Read the summary.
THE BRATTLE GROUP USES PSO TO STUDY BENEFITS OF TRANSMISSION TO CAPTURE GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY OF RENEWABLES
The Brattle Group conducted a study to evaluate the benefit of transmission that interconnects two regions with high levels of renewable penetration. Two realistic, identical systems were constructed and analyzed under "disjointed" and "interconnected" operations. PSO (with ENELYTIX) was used to simulate unit commitment and dispatch on a day-ahead (DA), hour-ahead (HA), and real-time (RT) basis, including explicit simulations of spinning, regulation up and down, and intra-day commitment option (ICO) reserves. The ability to have simulation results from hundreds of scenarios using the cloud, enabled more in-depth analysis of outlier scenarios. The study found that "interconnected" operation resulted in production cost and reduced curtailment benefits even under modest levels of interconnection. More importantly, a major portion of the benefits were realized in RT operations and would be significantly understated using traditional DA only modeling. View the presentation.
THE BRATTLE GROUP USES PSO TO EXAMINE PATTERNS OF INTERACTION BETWEEN NATURAL GAS AND RENEWABLE RESOURCES
The Texas Clean Energy Coalition commissioned a report to examine broad patterns of interaction between natural gas and renewable resources over the next twenty years. PSO (with ENELYTIX) was used to simulate both the market driven additions and retirements of capacity and the operation of the ERCOT system down to the intra-hour time frame. Combining the long and short term time frames was guided by the assumption that as the amount of renewable capacity grows, so does the relevance of short-term capabilities such as ramping capacity and quick start reserves. The report found that in the absence of continued or enhanced policy supports, natural gas generation would be the primary addition of choice though 2032, even with significant declines in the price of wind and solar power. Read the report.
TCR USES PSO TO STUDY DEVELOPMENT OF OFFSHORE WIND OFF THE COAST OF LONG ISLAND
TCR conducted a study to provide policy and decision makers with a context for evaluating the development and deployment of offshore wind off the coast of Long Island. The objective was to report the net of the benefits and the costs in terms of the bill impact on residential and commercial consumers on the island. PSO (with ENELYTIX) was used to evaluate a 250 MW off-shore wind farm and its impact on LMPs throughout LIPA and in turn to estimate impacts on residential and commercial electricity rates. Read the report.