Evaluation of reliability impacts and benefits of renewable energy integration in modern power systems

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The proposed research will focus on the development of probabilistic methods for quantitative assessment of the system-wide economic and environmental benefits from renewable energy utilization in electric power systems, and the impacts on the overall system performance and reliability. Widespread support for renewable energy has led to rapid increase in large-scale wind power integration in power systems, and opportunities for increased wind and solar power applications as distributed generation sources. Significant growth in intermittent generation, increased transmission congestion with highly fluctuating severity levels, and the relative growth in distributed generation are considerable changes in modern power systems. These changes have created new challenges to system planning and operation in order to provide reliable and efficient use of electrical energy. A long-run approach to mitigate these problems is the gradual transition of the electric networks into smart grids. These transitions further dictate a need to deviate from the conventional practices of system operation and planning, and to research and develop new and suitable techniques to increase energy efficiency, maximize renewable energy utilization and maintain acceptable short and long term reliability of the overall system. The proposed research will develop methodologies, considering the ongoing system structural changes, to quantify the benefits from wind and solar energy applications, and to evaluate the system reliability during the operation and planning of power systems integrated with renewable energy sources. The objective is to provide useful indicators and valuable information to power system planners and operators in order to maximize the benefits from different types of energy sources in the changing environment. The studies will provide important inputs to wind turbine and PV array manufacturers to develop their products to maximize renewable energy utilization considering system reliability and economic constraints. The developed methods should also be useful to energy policy makers and system regulators to develop and implement appropriate renewable energy policies and reliability standards.