Current NETS SQSS network operation and planning standards do not take into consideration reserve requirements when determining network capacity. A rapid growth in wind generation in the future will significantly increase the requirement for various forms of reserve and explicit consideration of the impact on network constraints on the allocation of spinning and standing reserves across the system may become important. Similarly, increased reserve requirements may impact on the need for transmission capacity. It is expected that under some circumstances, it may be appropriate to reinforce the transmission network in order to access cost effective resources of reserve that may be in the form of generation or demand.

If this work shows that there are significant benefits from incorporating reserve requirements in network planning, this could be used to consider changing network design standards to include reserve requirements in addition to considering peak demand conditions and constraint costs. It is proposed to carry out this analysis on predicted generation and demand background for the year 2020 and investigate whether the inclusion of generation and demand reserve in planning methodology would deliver economics benefits.

Imperial College will undertake a research project, under the supervision of Prof. Goran Strbac to establish this understanding and to propose alternative methodologies that might be practical to be applied to a real power system.

Objectives

This project will deliver an assessment of the effects of including both generation and demand side reserve in real time operation and transmission capacity planning in systems with significant penetration of wind generation. The twin objectives are to:

• Assess how network constraints impact on allocation of spinning and standing reserve

• Investigate whether investment in new transmission capacity may provide more efficient access to reserves needed to support cost effective integration of wind generation. This work should provide information that will be used to assess if the network planning approach should change to incorporate reserve requirements in National Grid systems with wind generation.

The research will:

• Assess the importance of an approach to reserve management that dynamically optimises the allocation of spinning and standing reserves in the presence of transmission constraints

• Develop a methodology for quantifying the impact that generation and demand side reserve has on the transmission capacity requirements

• Against current National Grid generation and transmission reinforcement predictions for the year 2020 identify where and how much additional transmission capacity would be justified to allow generation and demand side reserve to be effectively utilised in order to reduce operational cost and support wind integration. The opportunities for generation and demand side reserve will be characterised against the predicted demand and generation background for 2020.