Techno-Economic Analysis of On-Site Energy Storage Units to Mitigate Wind Energy Curtailment: A Case Study in Scotland

Seda Canbulat, Kutlu Balci, Onder Canbulat and I. Safak Bayram
Additional contact information
Seda Canbulat: Department of Economics, Business School, University of Strathclyde, 199 Cathedral St, Glasgow G4 0QU, UK
Kutlu Balci: Mott MacDonald, Renewable Energy Department, St Vincent Plaza, Glasgow G2 5LD, UK
Onder Canbulat: Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean & Marine Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Strathclyde, 100 Montrose St, Glasgow G4 0LZ, UK
I. Safak Bayram: Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XQ, UK

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 6, 1-20

Abstract: Wind energy plays a major role in decarbonisation of the electricity sector and supports achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Over the last decade, the wind energy deployments have grown steadily, accounting for more than one fourth of the annual electricity generation in countries like the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Germany. However, as the share of wind energy increases, system operators face challenges in managing excessive wind generation due to its nondispatchable nature. Currently, the most common practice is wind energy curtailment in which wind farm operators receive constraint payments to reduce their renewable energy production. This practice not only leads to wastage of large volumes of renewable energy, but also the associated financial cost is reflected to rate payers in the form of increased electricity bills. On-site energy storage technologies come to the forefront as a technology option to minimise wind energy curtailment and to harness wind energy in a more efficient way. To that end, this paper, first, systematically evaluates different energy storage options for wind energy farms. Second, a depth analysis of curtailment and constraint payments of major wind energy farms in Scotland are presented. Third, using actual wind and market datasets, a techno-economic analysis is conducted to examine the relationship between on-site energy storage size and the amount of curtailment. The results show that, similar to recent deployments, lithium-ion technology is best suited for on-site storage. As case studies, Whitelee and Gordon bush wind farms in Scotland are chosen. The most suitable storage capacities for 20 years payback period is calculated as follows: (i) the storage size for the Gordonbush wind farm is 100 MWh and almost 19% of total curtailment can be avoided and (ii) the storage size for the Whitlee farm is 125 MWh which can reduce the curtailment by 20.2%. The outcomes of this study will shed light into analysing curtailment reduction potential of future wind farms including floating islands, seaports, and other floating systems.

Keywords: wind energy curtailment; energy efficiency; wind farms; storage technologies; cost-benefit analysis; techno-economic analysis; “Case of Scotland” (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/6/1691/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/6/1691/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:6:p:1691-:d:519691

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().