CEC Intermittent Analysis Project Study
The California Energy Commission (Energy Commission) recognized the need to study the potential impacts that high penetrations of intermittent resources such as wind and solar would have on the security of the transmission grid. The Intermittency Analysis Project (IAP) investigates the transmission impacts of high penetrations of intermittent resources such as wind and concentrated solar power (CSP) on transmission adequacy and system operation for different years, seasons and renewable penetration levels. The IAP transmission analysis is completed by Davis Power Consultants, Power World Corporation and Anthony Engineering.
Transmission and generation should be planned in a coordinated manner to ensure generation resource adequacy and to maintain or improve transmission grid security. Transmission grid security is determined by the amount and severity of transmission overloads that are caused by new renewable projects during normal and contingent system operation.
When a new wind project is built and generation is injected to the grid, the corresponding generator output creates a time-variant (intermittent) power injection into the network. It is expected that the new project will require transmission expansion to avoid introducing new security problems. The determination of whether a project requires transmission expansion, and if so, the expansion level needed depends on:
The IAP transmission study focused on the following objectives:
Before beginning the study of renewable intermittency impacts on the California transmission system, a detailed evaluation methodology was needed. The IAP transmission team developed the evaluation process illustrated in Figure 1 1 and consisting of the following five steps:
Power flow models are compiled representing system load, conventional generation and hydro dispatch patterns for projected summer peak, spring peak, and fall off-peak periods. California utilities and several working groups provided seasonal cases based on Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) models and supplemental data from which base cases for the years of interest are compiled. The California Energy Commission load forecasts are applied to create base cases for each season in 2010 and 2020. Four sets of renewable power flow cases are developed as follows:
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