Integration of wind power in the liberalized Dutch electricity market

Wind power is becoming a large-scale electricity generation technology in a number of European countries, including the Netherlands. Owing to the variability and unpredictability of wind power production, large-scale wind power can be foreseen to have large consequences for balancing generation and demand in power systems. As an essential aspect of the Dutch market design, participants are encouraged to act according to their energy programs, as submitted day-ahead to the system operator. This program responsibility shifts the burden of balancing wind power away from the system operator to the market. However, the system operator remains the responsible party for balancing any generation/load imbalances that may still be arising in real time. In this article, features that are unique for the Dutch market design are presented and their implications on the system integration of wind power are investigated. It is shown that the Dutch market design penalizes the intermittent nature of wind power. A discussion of opportunities and threats of balancing wind power by use of market forces is provided. Last, an outline is given of future work. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley &Sons, Ltd.