Variable Resource Integration and System Flexibility Needs

Our state-of-the-art PSO modeling tool is well-designed to simulate the operation of variable resources and corresponding system flexibility needs to incorporate them.

We are able to model system operations down to a minute-by-minute basis, capturing all the intra-hour variability of these intermittent resources and load. Additionally, we are able to model the interaction between the day-ahead and real-time decision cycles and forecast error between cycles. This capability is important for assessing system design needs and the full costs of integrating renewables, as well as the benefits of storage, real-time coordination across RTOs, and other strategies to integrate renewables. Furthermore, we are able capture a full range of feasible renewable integration strategies by customizing operating reserves characteristics and modeling storage resources and demand response to optimize system flexibility.