ABSTRACT
Island power systems are facing considerable challenges to meeting their energy needs in a sustainable, affordable, and reliable way. As pointed out in Chapter 6, operation costs are higher not only because of expensive fuel transportation and lower efficiencies of the power generation technologies, but also because of the technical requirements of spinning reserves for guaranteeing frequency stability. The spinning reserve of island power systems must cover the loss of every connected unit. Since each generating unit represents a significant fraction of the total generation infeed, spinning reserve requirements displace cheaper units in favor of more expensive ones and increase the number of connected units, increasing the overall start-up cost of generators.
