As the penetration of variable renewable generation increases in power systems worldwide, planning for the effects of variability will become more important. Traditional capacity adequacy planning techniques have been supplemented with integration studies, which have been carried out in power systems with high targets for renewable generation. These have highlighted the increased variability that a system may experience in the future. As system generation planning techniques evolve with the challenge of integrating variable generation, the flexibility of a system to manage periods of high variability needs to be assessed. The insufficient ramping resource expectation (IRRE) metric is proposed to measure power system flexibility for use in long-term planning, and is derived from traditional generation adequacy metrics. Compared to existing generation adequacy metrics, flexibility assessment is more data intensive. A flexibility metric can identify the time intervals over which a system is most likely to face a shortage of flexible resources, and can measure the relative impact of changing operational policies and the addition of flexible resources. The flexibility of a test system with increasing penetrations of variable generation is assessed. The results highlight the time horizons of increased and decreased risk associated with the integration of VG.

Advances in the development of electric vehicles, along with policy incentives, will see a wider uptake of this technology in the transport sector in future years. However, the widespread adoption of electric vehicles could lead to adverse effects on the power system, especially for existing distribution networks. These effects would include excessive voltage drops and overloading of network components, which occur mainly during periods of simultaneous charging of large numbers of electric vehicles. This paper demonstrates how controlling the rate at which electric vehicles charge can lead to better utilization of existing networks. A technique based on linear programming is employed, which determines the optimal charging rate for each electric vehicle in order to maximize the total power that can be delivered to the vehicles while operating within network limits. The technique is tested on a section of residential distribution network. Results show that, by controlling the charging rate of individual vehicles, high penetrations can be accommodated on existing residential networks with little or no need for upgrading network infrastructure.

Synchronous island power systems, such as the combined Ireland and Northern Ireland power system, are facing increasing penetrations of renewable generation. As part of a wider suite of studies, performed in conjunction with the transmission system operators (TSOs) of the All-Island system (AIS), the frequency stability challenges at high and ultra-high wind penetrations were examined. The impact of both largest infeed loss and network fault induced wind turbine active power dips was examined: the latter contingency potentially representing a fundamental change in frequency stability risk. A system non-synchronous penetration (SNSP) ratio was defined to help identify system operational limits. A wide range of system conditions were studied, with results showing that measures such as altering ROCOF protection and enabling emulated inertia measures were most effective in reducing the frequency stability risk of a future Ireland system.

Power systems with high wind penetration experience increased variability and uncertainty, such that determination of the required additional operating reserve is attracting a significant amount of attention and research. This paper presents methods used in recent wind integration analyses and operating practice, with key results that compare different methods or data. Wind integration analysis over the past several years has shown that wind variability need not be seen as a contingency event. The impact of wind will be seen in the reserves for nonevent operation (normal operation dealing with deviations from schedules). Wind power will also result in some events of larger variability and large forecast errors that could be categorized as slow events. The level of operating reserve that is induced by wind is not constant during all hours of the year, so that dynamic allocation of reserves will reduce the amount of reserves needed in the system for most hours. The paper concludes with recent emerging trends.

Controlled charging of electric vehicles offers a potential solution to accommodating large numbers of such vehicles on existing distribution networks without the need for widespread upgrading of network infrastructure. Here, a local control technique is proposed whereby individual electric vehicle charging units attempt to maximise their own charging rate for their vehicle while maintaining local network conditions within acceptable limits. Simulations are performed to demonstrate the benefits of the technique on a test distribution network. The results of the method are also compared to those from a centralized control method whereby EV charging is controlled by a central controller. The paper outlines the advantages and disadvantages of both strategies in terms of capacity utilization and total energy delivered to charging EVs.