Managing Uncertainty of Wind Energy With Wind Generators Cooperative

Power systems around the world have set ambitious targets for renewable energy integration. Several jurisdictions incentivize renewables such as the Feed-in Tariff in Ontario, Canada. These incentives shall eventually run out and renewables would have to competitively sell energy into electricity markets, overcoming uncertainty and variability in their output. This paper proposes a Wind Generators Cooperative (WGC) model for competitive integration of renewables into energy markets, in the future, overcoming challenges posed by their uncertain and variable nature. The proposed model minimizes the effect of uncertainty and maximizes returns for wind generators. In the proposed WGC model, uncertainty of the total wind power output is reduced by the smoothing effect and using pumped-hydro facilities. Using these pumped-hydro facilities, WGC stores wind energy produced during low marginal price hours and releases it during high marginal price hours. In this paper, a case study with actual data from Ontario, Canada is presented with detailed sensitivity analyses. Analyses clearly demonstrate that the WGC increases returns to wind generators and reduces their exposure to uncertainty. The study and sensitivity analyses show that the WGC model is financially viable and minimizes output uncertainty.