eCommons

 

The Economic Value Of Reliability In Deregulated Electricity Markets

Other Titles

Abstract

The goal of this dissertation is to present an analytical framework for determining the economic value of both operating reliability and system adequacy in a mutually consistent manner. This is made possible using a new stochastic form of Security Constrained Optimal Power Flow, the Cornell SuperOPF, that determines the amount of generating capacity needed for reliability endogenously. The first application shows how the SuperOPF can be used to evaluate System Adequacy when wind capacity is added to a network. Although many studies focus exclusively on how wind generation lowers operating costs, this analysis also considers the capital costs of maintaining Financial Adequacy and includes the "missing money" that is generally paid through a Capacity Market. The results show why the net benefits from making an investment in wind capacity and/or upgrading a tie line are very sensitive to 1) how well the variability of wind generation is accommodated on the network by storage, and 2) how the amount of money required to maintain the Financial Adequacy of conventional generators is determined. A second application uses the SuperOPF to determine the economic value of individual transmission lines, and how this value changes when wind capacity is added to a network. A conventional economist's view of transmission lines is that their purpose is to transfer real power from inexpensive sources to expensive sinks. This concept works reasonably well when the topology of a network is radial, but not when it is meshed. The redundancy in a meshed network is important for maintaining reliability and the analysis shows why the conventional method of valuing a iii transmission upgrade as the change in congestion revenue (the line flow times the nodal price difference) is misleading. The analysis distinguishes between congestion revenues for 1) transferring energy, and 2) maintaining reliability, and also determines the capital cost of the generating capacity needed for reliability when wind capacity is added. Using storage to mitigate wind variability is shown to be an effective alternative to upgrading a tie line. iv

Journal / Series

Volume & Issue

Description

Sponsorship

Date Issued

2012-05-27

Publisher

Keywords

Electricity Markets; Energy Economics; Reliability

Location

Effective Date

Expiration Date

Sector

Employer

Union

Union Local

NAICS

Number of Workers

Committee Chair

Mount, Timothy Douglas

Committee Co-Chair

Committee Member

Thomas, Robert John
Schuler, Richard Edward

Degree Discipline

Regional Science

Degree Name

Ph. D., Regional Science

Degree Level

Doctor of Philosophy

Related Version

Related DOI

Related To

Related Part

Based on Related Item

Has Other Format(s)

Part of Related Item

Related To

Related Publication(s)

Link(s) to Related Publication(s)

References

Link(s) to Reference(s)

Previously Published As

Government Document

ISBN

ISMN

ISSN

Other Identifiers

Rights

Rights URI

Types

dissertation or thesis

Accessibility Feature

Accessibility Hazard

Accessibility Summary

Link(s) to Catalog Record