Reserve requirement impacts of large-scale integration of wind, solar, and ocean wave power generation

Many sources of renewable energy, including solar, wind, and ocean wave, offer significant advantages such as no fuel costs and no emissions from generation. However, in most cases these renewable power sources are variable and non-dispatchable. The utility grid is already able to accommodate the variability of the load and some additional variability introduced by sources such as wind. However, at high penetration levels, the variability of renewable power sources can severely impact the utility reserve requirements. This paper presents an analysis of the interaction between the variability characteristics of the utility load, wind power generation, solar power generation, and ocean wave power generation. The results show that a diversified variable renewable energy mix can reduce the utility reserve requirement and help reduce the effects of variability.