The Impact of Balancing Area Size and Ramping Requirements on Wind Integration

Abstract

Balancing area reserve sharing 2 may significantly reduce wind integration costs. It also reduces utility costs without wind. Some recent studies indicate that large balancing areas can integrate wind more easily than small ones. The “hockey stick” pattern of dramatically increasing wind integration cost above some threshold wind penetration may not be as pronounced as expected. The existence and location of this threshold could have important implications regarding the cost of integrating significant wind penetrations. We examine wind integration impacts as a function of balancing area size to determine if the larger system size mitigates wind integration impacts at high penetrations. Using data from Minnesota, we show that ramping requirements can be reduced by balancing area consolidation. In a companion paper 3 , we examine electricity market data in the United States that show how ramping capability is provided at low or no cost, and discuss its relevance to wind integration.