Duck Curve with Renewable Energies and Storage Technologies

Duck curve phenomena occurs when solar energy in higher quantities is integrated into the power grid. This results in excess generation that cannot be delivered during peak hours and a part of the load that cannot be supplied during off-peak hours. This paper proposes a novel, 2-step methodology to determine the effects of duck curve and also to flatten the same. This methodology uses two well-known opensource platforms - SAM (System Advisory Model) and IRENA FlexTool. Data for the energy capacity addition is obtained from SAM and optimization is done with FlexTool. A simple system is considered with a typical load profile and different energy sources. A few case scenarios are considered to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach and results are summarized.