Maximising revenue for non-firm distributed wind generation with energy storage in an active management scheme

The connection of high penetrations of renewable generation such as wind to distribution networks requires new active management techniques. Curtailing distributed generation during periods of network congestion allows for a higher penetration of distributed wind to connect, however, it reduces the potential revenue from these wind turbines. Energy storage can be used to alleviate this and the store can also be used to carry out other tasks such as trading on an electricity spot market, a mode of operation known as arbitrage. The combination of available revenue streams is crucial in the financial viability of energy storage. This study presents a heuristic algorithm for the optimisation of revenue generated by an energy storage unit working with two revenue streams: generation-curtailment reduction and arbitrage. The algorithm is used to demonstrate the ability of storage to generate revenue and to reduce generation curtailment for two case study networks. Studies carried out include a single wind farm and multiple wind farms connected under a ‘last-in-first-out’ principle of access. The results clearly show that storage using both operating modes increases revenue over either mode individually. Moreover, energy storage is shown to be effective at reducing curtailment while increasing the utilisation of circuits linking the distribution and transmission networks. Finally, renewable subsidies are considered as a potential third revenue stream. It is interesting to note that under current market agreements such subsidies have the potential to perversely encourage the installation of inefficient storage technologies, because of increased losses facilitating greater “utilisation” of renewable generation.