Operational flexibility enhancement in power systems with high penetration of wind power using compressed air energy storage

Unquestionably, renewable energy sources (RES) are an indispensable part of the future power systems, so-called smart grids. Since these sources are of variable and uncertain power output, power system operators would come across many challenges in operating future electric power systems. Increasing penetration of variable RES specifically wind power generation could lead to an increased need in operational flexibility within power systems, so that a more flexible power system could accommodate a larger amount of variable RES and effectively deal with increased variability and uncertainty of the system net load that results from the inherent intermittency of RES. Among options available, energy storage systems (ESS) could be considered to address this issue. In this paper, compressed air energy storage (CAES) is introduced and investigated for this purpose. A stochastic programming market-clearing model is presented to examine CAES capability for enhancing operational flexibility in power systems with high penetration of wind power. In order to demonstrate the efficacy of CAES, some case studies are carried out in a three-bus test system. The satisfactory results verify CAES ability at enhancing power system operational flexibility in terms of reduction in wind power curtailment and system operation cost.