The role of power system flexibility in generation planning

As the penetration of variable renewable generation increases in power systems worldwide, planning for the effects of variability will become more important. Traditional capacity adequacy planning techniques have been supplemented with integration studies, which have been carried out in power systems with high targets for renewable generation. These have highlighted the increased variability that a system may experience in the future. As system planning techniques evolve with the demands from variable generation, the flexibility of a system to manage periods of high variability will need to be assessed. A metric may be required to measure the flexibility of a power system for use in planning studies with multi-year horizons. Compared to generation adequacy metrics, system flexibility assessment is more data intensive and requires more detailed system modeling. An algorithm for scenario development in generation planning with high penetrations of variable generation is presented.