Planning efforts to evaluate dynamic response of increased penetration of variable generation within the Western Interconnection

With more policies and mandates for electric utilities to meet a portion of their loads using renewable energy, transmission planners are becoming increasingly challenged to evaluate the integration impacts to the electric grid. This paper identifies some planning efforts within the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) region to evaluate the dynamic response of increased penetration of variable generation. It also describes voltage control, dynamic modeling challenges, use of phasor measurement units and model validation efforts within areas of Western Interconnection that have already experienced high penetration of variable generation.