An Integrated Approach for Optimal Coordination of Wind Power and Hydro Pumping Storage

The increasing wind power penetration in power systems represents a techno-economic challenge for power producers and system operators. Due to the variability and uncertainty of wind power, system operators require new solutions in order to increase the controllability of wind farm output. On the other hand, producers that include wind farms in their portfolio need to find new ways to boost their profits in electricity markets. This can be done by optimizing the combination of wind farms and storage so as to make larger profits when selling power (trading) and reduce penalties from imbalances in the operation. The present work describes a new integrated approach for analyzing wind-storage solutions that make use of probabilistic forecasts and optimization techniques to aid decision-making on operating such systems. The approach includes a set of three complementary functions suitable for use in current systems. A reallife system is studied, comprising two wind farms and a large hydro station with pumping capacity. Economic profits and better operational features can be obtained from the proposed cooperation between the wind farms and storage. The revenues are function of the type of hydro storage used and the market characteristics and several options are compared in this study. The results show that the use of a storage device can lead to a significant increase in revenue, up to 11% (2010 data, Iberian market). Also, the coordinated action improves the operational features of the integrated system.