Managing wind uncertainty and variability in the Irish power system

This paper summarizes work that has been done to examine the impact of the uncertainty and variability of significant installed wind power on the Irish system. As more and more wind power is installed on the system, the operation of conventional plant on the system will be dramatically different. In this paper, three different aspects of the hour-to-hour operation of the Irish power system are examined. An innovative method to schedule the system is described, together with key results giving the effect of the uncertainty of wind on unit commitment of the system. The increased cycling of traditionally base-load units due to large amounts of wind power is quantified, and the steps to reduce this unwanted behavior are outlined. Finally, the use of intelligent decision tools based on sophisticated wind power forecasts for scheduling and provision of reserve is described.