Unified System-Level Modeling of Intermittent Renewable Energy Sources and Energy Storage for Power System Operation

The system-level consideration of intermittent renewable energy sources (RES) and small-scale energy storage in power systems remains a challenge as either type is incompatible with traditional operation concepts. Noncontrollability and energy constraints are still considered contingent cases in market-based operation. The design of operation strategies for up to 100% RES power systems requires an explicit consideration of nondispatchable generation and storage capacities, as well as the evaluation of operational performance in terms of energy efficiency, reliability, environmental impact, and cost. By abstracting from technology-dependent and physical unit properties, the power nodes modeling framework presented here allows the representation of a technologically diverse unit portfolio with a unified approach, while establishing the feasibility of energy-storage consideration in power system operation. After introducing the modeling approach, a case study is presented for illustration.