Comparative study on impacts of wind profiles on thermal units scheduling costs

Although wind power is a sustainable, environmentally friendly and a viable option for renewable energy in many places, the effects of its intermittent nature on power systems need to be carefully examined. This study investigates the effects of different wind profiles on the scheduling costs of thermal generation units. Two profiles are considered: synoptic-dominated and diurnal-dominated variations of aggregated wind power. To simulate the wind profile impacts, a linear mixed integer unit commitment problem is formulated in a general algebraic modelling system (GAMS) environment. The uncertainty associated with wind power is represented using a chance constrained formulation. The simulation results illustrate the significant impacts of different wind profiles on fuel saving benefits, startup costs and wind power curtailments. In addition, the results demonstrate the importance of the wide geographical dispersion of wind power production facilities to minimise the impacts of network constraints on the value of the harvested wind energy and the amount of curtailed energy.