Advanced grid development

风能和太阳能光伏是世界上发展最快的能源。这一趋势表明，在未来20 - 30年内，风能和太阳能光伏发电在电网中的渗透率将显著提高。从1996年到2014年，风电在电网中的渗透水平几乎呈指数增长，从6100兆瓦增加到293500兆瓦。在过去十年中，光伏电池的价格急剧下降，为进一步利用太阳能光伏发电提供了重大的技术和经济激励，并导致其在公用事业电网中的高度渗透。预计2017年全球光伏发电容量为32.2万兆瓦。加拿大的太阳能发电能力从2009年的50兆瓦增加到2014年的2000兆瓦（估计）。此外，令行业观察人士惊讶的是，大型太阳能光伏电站，如290兆瓦和550兆瓦的电站，在技术和经济上也变得可行，并成功地融入了公用事业电网。

Wind energy and solar-PV energy are the world fastest-growing energy resources. This trend indicates that the level of penetration of the wind and solar-PV power in the electric power grid will significantly grow within the next 2-3 decades. From 1996 to 2014, the level of wind power penetration in the power utility grid has almost exponentially increased from 6100-MW to 293,500-MW. The price of PV-cells has dramatically dropped during the last decade and resulted in significant technical and economical incentives for further utilization of solar-PV power and resulted in its high depth of penetration in the utility grid. The estimated global PV-power capacity for 2017 is 322,000-MW. The Canadian solar electricity capacity has increased from about 50-MW in 2009 to (estimated) 2000-MW in 2014. Furthermore, to the surprise of the industry observers, large-size solar-PV power plants, e.g., 290-MW and 550-MW plants, also have become technically and economically viable and successfully integrated in the utility grid. High-depth of penetration of solar and wind power in the utility power grid imposes challenging technical issues due to the intermittency of such resources and the characteristics of power electronic converters that interface them to the grid. In view of the fact that high-depth of penetration of the renewable resources occur gradually, it is imperative for Hydro One to develop comprehensive understanding and a systematic categorization of the issues and their degrees of severity, develop strategies to prevent/counteract/mitigate the issues in the most economical way, and pro-actively plan for legacy asset management in coordination with the increase in the depth of penetration of renewable resources. The main objective of this R&D program is to empower Hydro One to deal with these requirements.