Monte Carlo Based Operating Reserve Adequacy Evaluation of a Stand-Alone Microgrid Considering High Penetrations of Correlated Wind Energy

High penetration of wind energy in microgrids is a promising project to substitute the polluting and progressively depleted fossil energy resources, consequently, impact of the intermittency on operational reliability and efficiency is becoming the center of attention. This paper proposed a non-sequential Monte Carlo simulation based method to evaluate the operating reserve adequacy of a stand-alone microgrid integrating with correlated wind energy. The simulation method nests an 8-sigma truncated standard normal distribution for generating samples of correlated wind speeds. Two commonly used indices of expected energy not supplied and expected energy not used are employed to quantify the operating reserve adequacy. Case studies conducted on a test system demonstrate that high wind energy penetration levels combined with large wind speed correlation coefficients have significant effects on the operating reserve adequacy, and a properly designed energy storage system is able to help enhance the operating reserve adequacy of a stand-alone microgrid.