Abstract

Wind power varies over time and variations occur on all time scales, mainly under the influence of meteorological fluctuations. Understanding these variations and their predictability is of key importance for integration and optimal utilisation of wind in the power system. There are two major attributes of variable renewable generation that notably impact the participation on power exchanges: variability and uncertainty. Due to variability and uncertainty, wind plants cannot participate in the electricity market, especially on the power exchanges. This paper will present a techno-economic analysis of work of wind plants together with a combined cycle gas turbine power plant as support for offering continuous power to the electricity market. This work presents a model of electricity production from wind farms and a combined cycle gas turbine power plant developed in the programming tool called PLEXOS. Real hourly input data and all characteristics of combined cycle gas turbine power plant were used in the model.
A detailed analysis of techno-economic characteristics of ramp rates and different types of starts and stops of the plant was made. The main motivation for this analysis is to investigate both technical and economical possibilities for an investor to participate in the power exchanges by offering continuous guaranteed power from wind plants by backing them up with a combined cycle gas turbine power plant.