The integration of renewable generators into the electrical grid presents an important challenge for the electrical system operators and plant owners. The typical electrical grid was designed and built on the principle of a centralized energy system of massive power plants transmitting electricity across long distances to the load packets. But the rise of variable wind and solar generation both at transmission and distribution level is resulting in a paradigm shift and additional challenges to power system planning and operation. Renewables have the potential to match or even surpass conventional generation in some parts of the world in the next decade. The integration challenges are unique for each electrical grid and will depend on various factors. Some of these factors are:

  • Expecting penetration level of variable generation
  • Geographical diversity and size of new renewable resources
  • Existing generation fleet capability to accommodate increasing amounts of variable generation (regulation reserve, spinning reserve)
  • Operational tools that are in use in control room
  • Existing unit commitment and scheduling tools

SAPVIA and First Solar hosted a unique opportunity to hear from industry-leading experts about best practices in the integration of renewable energy into the electricity grid, by way of a webinar, which was held on Thursday, 12 September 2013.
The following presentations were delivered:

  • Dr Abraham Ellis, Principal Member of Technical Staff, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, presented on PV Plant Electrical Modeling for Interconnection and Transmission Planning Studies, which can be downloaded here
  • Dr Lu, Senior Research Engineer, Pacific Northwest National Labs (PNNL), presented on NV Energy PV Integration Study, which can be downloaded here
  • Debbie Lew, Senior Research Engineer, National Renewable Energy Labs (NREL), presented on the Western Wind and Solar Integration Study (WWSIS), which can be downloaded here, and
  • Dr Hoff, Founder, Clean Power Research, presented on Integration Tools for High Penetration Distributed PV, which can be downloaded here

For a comprehensive overview on each of the presenters as well as the hosts, please click here.