ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses four strategies that have the largest potential to aid independent system operators, regional transmission organizations, and others to reduce or manage wind and solar variability. One strategy for managing variability is aggregating wind plants within a region or large geographical area. Aggregation is achieved by interconnecting wind plants with transmission lines. Using the frequency analysis method described in, researchers examined 15-minute energy output data from 20 wind plants in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region. The chapter also discusses the potential benefits of storage should it become available at larger scale, as well as economics of battery storage, pumped hydroelectric storage, compressed air energy storage (CAES), and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) grid storage. Energy storage can enhance grid integration of these variable sources. The costs of storage currently pose a barrier to large-scale deployment.
