Round-the-year security analysis with large-scale wind power integration

The ongoing liberalization process together with the growing penetration of renewable energy sources (RES), e.g. wind power, require an internationally oriented transmission planning approach that considers the increased uncertainties in terms of trade, location of generation and output of intermittent generation. This paper identifies and ranks bottlenecks, which is the first step of the transmission planning process for interconnected high-voltage grids. A round-the-year approach is proposed by combining market simulations with static security analysis. Many combinations of load and generation (including RES) are created and analyzed, using unit dispatch based on cost optimization. For each combination, the branch loadings are determined for normal and contingency situations. A statistical risk-based approach for ranking the most severe bottlenecks is developed. The method is illustrated on a modified New England test system where wind power was added at several buses. The risk of overload versus amount of installed wind power is also assessed.