Temporal and spatial assessment of offshore wind energy: system benefits for Ireland

The growing share of stochastic renewable resources has the potential to cause operational and planning challenges for the power system. Consequently, it is important to evaluate the spatial and temporal variability impacts of large shares of renewable generation, with a particular focus here on offshore wind generation. Ireland has net zero ambitions for 2050, with the aim of achieving 37 GW of offshore wind capacity by this time. Given limited interconnection capacity, and the low flexibility contribution from online thermal generation, it is important to quantify the net demand variability of the future system. A framework has been developed to analyse potential temporal (sub-hourly and hourly) variations in offshore wind generation profiles around the Irish coast, with comparison made against similar aggregated onshore wind and solar PV generation profiles. Using the CorRES (correlations in renewable energy sources) simulation tool, different weather years have been modelled to simulate 5-minute variations, with wake losses also considered. The variations in offshore, onshore wind and PV available generation profiles are compared.