Determining optimal energy storage size to mitigate intra-hour wind power variability

Mitigating wind power variability is essential to improving grid reliability and power dispatch flexibility. The objective of this paper is to determine the optimal size of energy storage systems (ESSs) using the proposed conditional range metric (CRM). By employing a two-parameter gamma distribution, intra-hour wind power variability can be quantified via its cumulative distribution functions (CDF) at each production level. A maximum likelihood estimator delivers accurate parameters to the gamma CDF. To reduce intra-hour power variations, a generic ESS is incorporated with the wind farm. Optimal designs for sizing and dispatch schemes of the ESS are proposed using wind power time-series available from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Validity and efficacy of these designs are evaluated and quantified by the CRM.