Load-Following and Spinning-Reserve Penalties for Intermittent Generation

Recent interest in intermittent generation and plant response to meet load pickups suggests that load-following and spinning-reserve penalties need to be considered in the economic evaluation of intermittent generation. This paper presents a simple method for estimating the spinning-reserve and load-following requirements for a power system containing intermittent generation. It is incorporated in an optimal generation expansion planning model which can evaluate the effect of such requirements on the generation mix and the production cost. A case study demonstrates that under some assumptions, these penalties can completely eliminate the usual energy and capacity credits for the intermittent generation.