Capacity credit evaluation: A literature review

The amount of conventional resources (mainly thermal) that could be 'replaced' by renewable production, without making the system less reliable is defined as the capacity credit of the renewable plant(s). For any proper assessment of the capacity credit, it is primordial to be able to assess the reliability of the power system network. Ideally, the reliability of the network before the introduction of DGs should be the same, if not better, than after their introduction. This paper discusses the methods used to evaluate capacity credit and provides links to several studies performed mostly in and around Europe and the US. Because the majority of these methods use reliability indices to quantify the reliability with and without wind, it is important to include reliability metrics in the discussion. The sole aim of this paper is to provide a database of most of the available literature to the topic and discuss some of the better attempts.