Pooling loads and resources into a larger balancing area (BA) holds the promise of allowing additional wind to be integrated into the system at lower cost. There are a number of ways that this type of pooling could occur, including consolidation of BAs, or various cooperative approaches. In prior work, we analyzed the impact of combined BA operations on ramping requirements, based on hourly data. We showed that ramping constraints can cause a spike in costs that would not be reflective of the energy cost. We also showed that sub-hourly energy markets can provide strong economic signals to generators on the margin that can provide ramp response with little or no cost. In this paper, we analyze sub-hourly ramping requirements and the benefit of combining BA operations with significant wind penetrations. Our analysis at the sub-hourly level indicates that there can be significant increases in the ramp requirements compared to hourly, and yet these can be better managed by either a fast energy market or by a combined approach to operations. Our data from four BAs show that 5-minute combined load and wind ramp in excess is about 700 MW and can be avoided altogether by a combined approach to BA operations. We analyze high-quality wind power data from a mesoscale numerical weather prediction model, along with synchronized load data. We compare the sub-hourly and hourly ramp savings, and show why integration costs are lower when BAs can manage wind cooperatively, as opposed to separately.
PDF
download
878987797
028-85220240
