The role of energy storage in mitigating ramping inefficiencies caused by variable renewable generation.

Rising penetrations of variable renewable generation in electric power systems can raise operational challenges. One is that renewables can increase the need for dispatchable generation with fast-ramping capabilities. This can be costly, because in many instances flexible generators can be more expensive than baseload units that have slower ramping capabilities. If ramping capacity is not available, renewable curtailment may be needed. An alternate solution to this need for ramping is to use energy storage. A question that this raises is how renewable and conventional generators and energy storage would interact in a market environment, and whether certain asset-ownership structures would result in more efficient coordination. To this end, this paper presents a multi-period market-equilibrium model of interactions between these different types of market agents. The impacts on renewable integration of conventional generators having limited ramping capabilities are studied through an illustrative case study. We also examine a variety of structures for the participation of energy storage in the market. We find that co-ownership and co-operation of renewable generators and energy storage brings about the best results from the perspective of alleviating market inefficiencies. Having energy storage directly controlled by the market operator or participating as an independent profit-maximizing firm is less efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]