Modeling Utility-Scale Wind Power Plants Part 2: Capacity Credit

NOTICE This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. Neither the United States government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States government or any agency thereof. Abstract As the worldwide use of wind turbine generators in utility-scale applications continues to increase, it will become increasingly important to assess the economic and reliability impact of these intermittent resources. Although the utility industry appears to be moving towards a restructured environment, basic economic and reliability issues will continue to be relevant to companies involved with electricity generation. This paper is the second in a two-part series that addresses modeling approaches and results that were obtained in several case studies and research projects at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). This second paper focuses on wind plant capacity credit as measured with power system reliability indices. Reliability-based methods of measuring capacity credit are compared with wind plant capacity factor. The relationship between capacity-credit and accurate wind forecasting is also explored.