Introduction of wind power into the Spanish automatic generation control (AGC)

Abstract

The AGC is a system that automatically controls the generation of power plants participating in the secondary regulation within a regulation zone. Currently common AGC systems are designed to control conventional power plants such as thermal power and hydropower power plants. However, due to the ongoing expansion of renewable energies in Spain, system operators are facing increasing economic problems due to power deviations resulting from renewable energy source within their portfolio. A possible approach in order to tackle this challenge could lie in the inclusion of the renewable energies into the AGC system. In this context the present study illustrates the results obtained by a 72 hour simulation of an AGC operation, incorporating 2 wind parks. For the simulation real AGC operation software and input data has been used. Moreover all regulating power plants as well as the introduced wind parks have been modeled, taking into account the most relevant features for AGC studies such as linear response dynamics, power and power ramp limitations as well as dead band and offset characteristics.