Maximising the contribution of renewables in a utility energy mix

Solar and wind energy sources present meaningful challenges for utility operators. These energy sources are subject to random exposure to cloud cover and variable wind conditions. Predicting cloud and wind conditions is fraught with uncertainty. Thus solar and wind power sources present important considerations of reliability. This paper develops and discusses a generalised methodology to incorporate renewables like solar and wind into the traditional energy mix for electric utilities in light of the reliability challenges they present. Solar and wind cannot reliably displace fossil fuel or nuclear power fully in the energy mix at present. However, pumped storage facilities retain the capacity to provide sufficient storage to stabilise renewable generation and assure reliability of service utilising currently available technology. As a result pumped storage capacity is the demand stabilisation method applied within the simulation set forth. The method presented also enables a utility to examine and model variance within the general shape of the demand for electricity through the simulation.