Improving Reliability Indices of the Autonomous Power System of Crete Island Utilizing Extended Photovoltaic Installations

Konstantinos Fiorentzis, Antonios Tsikalakis, Emmanuel Karapidakis, Yiannis Katsigiannis and George Stavrakakis
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Konstantinos Fiorentzis: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Hellenic Mediterranean University, GR-71004 Heraklion, Greece
Antonios Tsikalakis: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Hellenic Mediterranean University, GR-71004 Heraklion, Greece
Emmanuel Karapidakis: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Hellenic Mediterranean University, GR-71004 Heraklion, Greece
Yiannis Katsigiannis: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Hellenic Mediterranean University, GR-71004 Heraklion, Greece
George Stavrakakis: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technical University of Crete, University Campus, GR-73100 Chania, Greece

Energies, 2019, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Renewable energy sources (RES) have significantly helped in meeting the electricity demand of Crete, with their share in the energy balance to account for about 25% of the annual electricity production for the past five years. The contribution of photovoltaics (PVs) has been especially significant for the past three years, offering 10% in the peak demand, during summertime. This paper investigates what the capacity credit would be, i.e., up to what extent increasing existing PV capacity by about 20% can be considered as certain, to avoid installing thermal power units. In order to do so, probabilistic techniques have been applied to quantify the load that the installed thermal units in the Cretan power system should be able to meet at any time. In addition, the effect of the additional PV capacity to power system’s reliability is evaluated, introducing a new reliability index and taking into account actual data, regarding the planned and unplanned thermal units’ maintenance. Two scenarios have been examined using actual hourly data for load demand, PV, and wind production from the island power system of Crete. In the first scenario, the calculations were carried out considering the operation of the Cretan power system in its current state, while in the second scenario it was assumed that the PV production has been increased by 20%. Furthermore, we examine how the maximum value of capacity credit can be achieved as the PV installations are extended. In this regard, there is an upper limit of the additional PV capacity that leads to the maximum value of capacity credit.

Keywords: photovoltaics; probabilistic analysis; capacity credit; reliability; island power systems (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: 2019
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