Impact of integrating the photovoltaic and wind energy sources on generation system reliability and operation economics

This paper presents an approach to assess the impact on the performance of generation systems of the integration of photovoltaic and wind energy systems. The fluctuating nature of the energy produced by these renewable energy sources has different effects on the generation system reliability than the energy produced by conventional generation units. The probability models for conventional, photovoltaic and wind generation units are created separately, treating them as three separate groups. An hourly load model is employed for the present study, thus the probability models for photovoltaic and wind energy units are modified hourly to include the effect of fluctuations in generation capacity. Finally, these models are combined to evaluate the reliability index, loss of load expectation (LOLE), using discrete state algorithm and impact of the integration of wind and photovoltaic units is analyzed. The conventional fuel savings due to the use of photovoltaic and wind energy sources are assessed to analyze the impact on the operational economics.