Open AccessModelling utility‐scale wind power plants. Part 1: Economics
Author(s) -
Milligan Michael R.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
wind energy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1099-1824
pISSN - 1095-4244
DOI - 10.1002/1099-1824(199910/12)2:4<167::aid-we25>3.0.co;2-a
Subject(s) - wind power , renewable energy , reliability (semiconductor) , electricity , scale (ratio) , production (economics) , electricity generation , environmental economics , variety (cybernetics) , engineering , economics , computer science , power (physics) , microeconomics , physics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , electrical engineering
As the worldwide use of wind turbine generators continues to increase in utility‐scale applications, it will become increasingly important to assess the economic and reliability impact of these intermittent resources. Although the utility industry in the United States appears to be moving towards a restructured environment, basic economic and reliability issues will continue to be relevant to companies involved with electricity generation. This article is the first of two which address modelling approaches and results obtained in several case studies and research projects at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). This first article addresses the basic economic issues associated with electricity production from several generators that include large‐scale wind power plants. An important part of this discussion is the role of unit commitment and economic dispatch in production cost models. This paper includes overviews and comparisons of the prevalent production cost modelling methods, including several case studies applied to a variety of electric utilities. The second article discusses various methods of assessing capacity credit and results from several reliability‐based studies performed at NREL. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.