Recommendations for Wind and Solar Integration Studies

A significant number of wind and solar integration studies have been conducted in recent years, and methodologies have evolved steadily. Since power system characteristics and data availability vary significantly, the results and methodologies used in these studies have varied accordingly. This article presents findings from an international collaboration under two IEA Technology Collaboration Programmes (WIND and PVPS) working towards updating Recommended Practices for Wind Integration studies to also include those for solar photovoltaics (PV). An overview of a complete wind and solar integration study is presented as a flow chart. The set-up of a study and the main assumptions can have a large impact on the results, and therefore significant attention must be paid to ensure that these choices conform to international best practices. The main steps in the simulations are presented with recommendations on methodologies for assessing impacts on reserve requirements, on other generation and balancing, capacity value, and increases in transmission capacity. Keywords-grid integration, reserve requirements, capacity credit, load flow, system stability, unit commitment, wind power, solar energy