Economical Configuration of Primary Frequency Regulation Reserve for Renewable Energy Plant

With a higher renewable energy power penetration level, the new power system is facing more and more challenges in aspects of power balance and frequency stability. To deal with the frequency issues, the power system operator puts forward more requirements for a renewable energy plant to provide the ancillary frequency service. Thus, it is necessary to investigate an economical configuration scheme of power reserve for renewable energy plant. In this paper, different configuration schemes of primary frequency regulation reserve for renewable energy plant are discussed, which considers the costs of renewable energy power reserve, energy storage system and punishment caused by insufficient frequency support. In case studies, scenarios with small frequency fluctuations and large frequency fluctuations are both considered. The results show that in scenarios with small frequency fluctuations, configuring energy storage system is the cost-optimal choice, whereas in scenarios with large frequency fluctuations, configuring energy storage system together with a small amount of power reserve retained by renewable energy generation can make the composite cost the lowest.