Collaborative Planning and Economic Analyses of High Renewable Penetrated Energy Systems Considering Concentrating Solar Power

The capacity of wind and photovoitaic (PV) generators have been increasing rapidly, however, the intermittency and uncertainty of wind and solar power raise challenges to the economic and flexible operation of the power system. Concentrating solar power (CSP) plants which usually include thermal energy storage (TES) devices can compensate for fluctuations in wind and solar power, and thus can provide both renewable generation and operational flexibility for the energy systems. In this paper, we build a high-resolution collaborative planning model that can optimize both capacity investment and long-term hourly power balance, with consideration of the characteristics of CSP plants and economic analyses of high renewable penetrated energy systems. Then, we apply the proposed model to the energy system in Xinjiang province in China and obtain an optimal scheduling strategy for the combined power generation. The results show that coordinated deployment of multiple renewables by the introduction of CSP plants can decrease the peak regulation depth and the start-stop frequency of traditional thermal units, and lessen the variable renewable energy curtailment. Therefor E, it can further reduce the operational risk and the total cost of the high renewable penetrated energy system, and enhance the utilization rate of variable renewable energy.