Events Calendar

Wind Integration ----By All Means Available

Speaker: Eilyan Bitar, Graduate Student, University of California, Berkeley

Abstract:
There is an increasing interest in renewable energy production both from economic, security and environmental perspectives. The State of California has set a target of thirty-three percent penetration from all renewable sources by 2020. Wind energy will play a key role in realizing such aggressive targets. At today's modest (order one percent) penetration levels, wind energy is integrated into the grid by legislative fiat. At deep penetration levels called for, integration of utility-scale wind production into the electricity grid poses serious engineering and market challenges. These are due to the variability, intermittency, and uncontrollability of wind power. In this talk we investigate ways to use a portfolio of available means to achieve deep penetration of wind generation in the current grid. This portfolio includes co-located storage, fast-acting local production, optimized contracts, novel market instruments, and improved forecasting. We introduce a linear programming formulation that enables us to study sensitivities and conduct parametric studies. We argue that co-located storage has a marginal economic utility of approximately 17 MW-hours-per-day for each MW-hour of storage. Our studies suggest that it will become necessary to waste some produced wind energy (when production is lower than thirty percent of nameplate capacity) to permit reliable servicing of electricity contracts. This is due to the difficulty associated with forecasting produced power at low wind levels. Finally, we suggest the use of risk-limiting contracts to achieve firming of wind-power. In these auditable contracts, the producer receives a short reprieve which enables them to offer power predictably by avoiding ramp times. We conclude by discussing how variability risk should be shared among participants in an electricity network while respecting security constraints.



Biography: Eilyan Bitar is a fifth-year doctoral student at U.C. Berkeley working towards the completion of a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and M.S. in Statistics. He received his B.S. from U.C. Berkeley in 2006, where his research focused primarily on the control of reacting flow fields. Currently, his research interests include complex networks, stochastic optimal control and optimization, sequential Monte-Carlo methods, and game theory with applications in renewable energy systems, the electric power grid, electricity markets, energy storage, and wind power forecasting.



Host: Dr. Roger Ghanem

Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Evangeline Reyes