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NREL Study Quantifies Impact of Increasing Wind and Solar Generation on Fossil-fueled Power Plants
Green Technology Featured Articles
September 26, 2013

NREL Study Quantifies Impact of Increasing Wind and Solar Generation on Fossil-fueled Power Plants

By Calvin Azuri
TMCnet Contributor

A new study from the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on the impact of increasing wind and solar power generation on fossil-fueled power plants in the West was recently found that if utilities want to accommodate more wind and solar power on the electric grid, they will either have to ramp down and ramp up and or resort to “cycling” – a process of frequently stopping and starting conventional generators.


The study revealed that carbon emitted because of frequent cycling was negligible (<0.2 percent) when compared to carbon reductions resulting from wind and solar power generation. Reductions in sulfur dioxide emissions from wind and solar were 5 percent less because of cycling of fossil-fueled generators while nitrogen oxides emissions went down by 2 percent. The study also revealed that increase in wind and solar power generation will reduce cost of fossil fuel by around $7 billion each year in the West.

In a statement, Debra Lew, NREL project manager for the study, said, “Grid operators have always cycled power plants to accommodate fluctuations in electricity demand as well as abrupt outages at conventional power plants, and grid operators use the same tool to accommodate high levels of wind and solar generation. Increased cycling to accommodate high levels of wind and solar generation increases operating costs by 2 percent to 5 percent for the average fossil-fueled plant. However, our simulations show that from a system perspective, avoided fuel costs are far greater than the increased cycling costs for fossil-fueled plants.”

In phase two of the Western Wind and Solar Integration Study (WWSIS-2) the viability, benefits and challenges of combining high concentrations of wind and solar power into the western electricity grid were studied. While the study did corroborate its technical feasibility based on specific operational changes, the question of how cycling would impact costs and emissions cannot be ignored.

In order to quantify wear-and-tear costs and emissions impacts, NREL created five hypothetical scenarios for examining a 33 percent generation of wind and solar energy on the power system of Western Interconnection for the year 2020. The Study found that - high wind and solar scenarios bring down CO2 emissions by 29 percent – 34 percent for Western Interconnection, with cycling having no impact; cycling reduces the SO2 benefit by 2 percent – 5 percent, however, cycling did improve the NOx benefit by 1 percent – 2 percent.

The study also found that because of sunset and sunrise, ramping for solar power is greater.  However, since the path of the sun can be mapped, system operators can plan ramping needs in advance.

Based on unpredictability of day-ahead wind forecasts, operators find it difficult to decide which power plants have to be online for the next day. However, since forecast accuracy for four hours ahead is greater when compared with 24 hours ahead, a four-hour-ahead decision to start up selected power plants that can be ramped up quickly can help in reducing forecast errors. Although differences in wind and solar grid operations do exist, their impacts on system-wide operational costs are similar.




Edited by Rachel Ramsey


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