Moving windward
On a global basis, electricity production from renewable resources has increased tremendously over the last decade. Of all of the types of renewable resources, wind power has experienced the most significant growth rate in installed capacity in the past few years.
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Although wind power today represents a very small proportion of the world's overall electrical generation capacity, at today’s growth rates it is anticipated that by 2020 wind power resources could provide upwards of 10 percent of the world's installed generating capacity1. Energy generated by wind power facilities within the USA by 2020 is predicted to equal that of all presently installed US hydro resources2. Canadian and US federal government policies have not historically supported widespread adoption of wind power. Recent technology-led reductions in equipment costs, targeted government renewable energy incentive programs, open transmission access rules, renewable portfolio standards, rising costs for conventional power and awakening consumer demand for environmentally friendly power sources have all helped tip the scales increasingly in favor of wind power. |
Depending on the resource mix of any given power system, integrating wind power can pose issues due to the uncertainty in forecasting wind and the variability of wind generation. Integration of wind power into a hydro-based system, though, has significant advantages as reservoir storage can be used to reshape the wind generation and to provide the necessary reserve requirements to offset short-term variability, helping to create a highly desirable firm “green power” product.
A specialized study addressing short-term wind integration issues has been recently completed by Hatch Acres subsidiary, Synexus Global Inc. (SGI), for Manitoba Hydro. The study was undertaken to determine the cost of integrating specific amounts of wind energy into the Manitoba energy mix in terms of (1) the cost of supplying reserve to support the wind energy supply and (2) the cost of reservoir operations to reshape it. The Manitoba Hydro system is comprised of approximately 95 percent hydropower, totaling some 5,000 MW. As such it provides an excellent stage for effectively absorbing wind generation. The Manitoba Hydro system is quite complex and contains both seasonal and nonseasonal reservoirs, restrictive transmission and tie line interconnections along with significant hydraulic operational constraints. Manitoba Hydro also exchanges its power with several neighboring power markets including the US, Saskatchewan and Ontario. In order to capture and understand the effects of hour-to-hour wind variability and uncertainty on short-term operations, the study was carried out using SGI’s Vista software, an hourly optimization model which considers, in detail, the hydro operations, the external energy sources (e.g. wind, thermal), the reserve requirements, market pricing, and firm and spot energy exchange opportunities for up to a full year. |
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The analysis involved two basic runs for several hydrologic conditions. The first run included a non-wind incremental resource; the second, a wind incremental resource requiring additional reserves and reshaping. The cost differential between these two runs was evaluated and attributed to the cost of operating the wind resource as opposed to a non-wind resource.
For some hydro utilities, wind and hydraulic generation can be managed in an optimal manner to form a highly desirable energy product. The study quantified the short-term costs of integrating of a wind energy supply and the impact on reservoir and unit dispatch operations in a detailed manner such that Manitoba Hydro is now in a better position to assess the true benefits of adding wind into their system. For utilities with hydro storage, quantitative evaluations, such as the one described above, bring wind energy even further to the forefront of new energy sources under consideration.
1. GWEC - Global Wind Energy Council
2. AWEA - American Wind Energy Association
For further information, please contact:
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Diana Hurdowar-Castro |
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