Big, Fast and Flexible: Grid Operations for Efficient Variable Renewable Integration

A growing body of research and operational experience highlights the value of large balancing areas and fast system operations to cost-effectively integrating high penetrations of wind and solar on the grid. The institutional and regulatory context governing a power system strongly shapes the strategies available for increasing both the size and speed of its operations. For example, wholesale power markets can take advantage of competitive mechanisms such as energy imbalance markets to coordinate with neighboring power systems to expand the balancing footprint. In contrast, vertically integrated monopolies may rely more on policy, internal dispatch processes and contractual mechanisms to improve access to diverse balancing resources. Participants in this webinar discuss three different pathways, along with implementation considerations and examples for each, for enhancing the size and speed of grid operations for efficient variable renewable integration.