A Benders Decomposition Approach for Optimal Wind Capacity Allocation to Power System with Security Constraints

Wind energy is leading technology among renewable energy resources, and many countries have ambitious wind energy plans for future. Wind-rich sites which are a variable source of energy, are mostly located in remote areas that transmission network in these areas cannot absorb additional power from new wind sites. Therefore, a non-physically firm connection strategy is key to its cost-effective and timely integration to presently constrained transmission networks. This problem is computationally challenging and a proper method is needed to relieve this computationally burden of the problem. In this paper, it is shown that the large-scale linear programming is exploitable by benders decomposition method. Hourly wind speed data are used to accurately model the effects of wind speed pattern on unit commitment (UC) and DC optimal power flow (OFF) problem for an entire year. The results show effectiveness of a proper wind capacity allocation method on the total investment and operation costs and overall wind energy penetration into the power system. Copyright (C) 2011 Praise Worthy Prize S.r.l. - All rights reserved.