The Point at Which Energy Storage is Required for Integrating Renewables in Remote Power Systems

Remote hybrid power systems that integrate renewable resources, such as wind and solar, in a thermal generation system encounter technical barriers with regards to the depth of penetration of these renewable resources. Some of these barriers can be addressed by curtailing the renewable generation, however with increasing levels of penetration energy storage must be implemented within the system in order to maintain system security and adequacy. These barriers are identified through a logical approach and the level of renewable energy that these barriers reside at is found through QSTS simulations of the remote power system of Old Crow, Canada. This analysis finds that for a remote, isolated diesel based power system the most load that a generator could pick up or shed is approximately 65% of the name plate capacity. Therefore, the size of the renewable resource before energy storage required is dependent on the capacity of the smallest generator to ensure that energy balance and system security are maintained.