Evaluation of concentrated solar-thermal generation for provision of power system flexibility

Including a large amount of renewable energy sources (RES) in future power systems will not be possible without flexibility. Concentrated solar power (CSP) presents an excellent resource with inherent flexibility. This paper purposes aggregation of inflexible RES, such as utility-scale photovoltaic, with CSP to achieve the required flexibility. The aim is to keep in check the ramping stress induced on conventional generators due to the integration of RES. For this purpose, a Stackelberg game is used to capture the interaction between an independent system operator (ISO) and purposed RES aggregation (REA). In cost minimisation analysis, the ISO tries to minimise generation cost, whereas REA seeks to maximise revenue. In this setting optimising power dispatch from REA with total energy and ramp rate limitations is a challenging task. Case studies benchmark the effect of purposed REA against business as usual scenario for the Australian National Electricity Market.