| Abstract: | As wind power continues to be one of the fastest-growing energy sources worldwide, utility planners and operators must meet the challenge of integrating increasing levels of wind power into their electrical power systems. These challenges stem from the nondispatchable nature of wind power and can be broken down into components associated with variability (i.e., effects due to the changing wind resource) and uncertainty (i.e., effects related to our inability to perfectly forecast the weather). In the past, utilities were often motivated to conduct an integration study to determine the costs associated with integrating wind power into their systems; recently, however, there has been a move away from a simple determination of wind-integration costs and towards a balanced view of both integration costs and operational savings due to displaced fuel and emissions. |
