Benefit Analysis of Wind Energy Storage by Time Shift Simulation

Abstract

Currently there exist several energy storage technologies that are suitable for wind energy integration services. Energy prices in several countries (such as in Spain) are set for the day ahead market, which means the hourly prices are known the day before. This represents an opportunity for wind power plant owners. Wind energy generated in hours when demand and prices are the lowest could be stored and sold in hours when demand and prices are higher. This paper analyses the benefit of wind energy storage by time shift depending on climatological (wind), technological (storage facilities), and market (power prices) factors for the Spanish case, as exemplification of a methodology to be used in any other country. Wind energy time shift has been simulated for periods of time of 1 hour up to 9 hours considering two scenarios, a day with low wind energy generation and a day with high wind generation, in order to determine in which moments a beneficial exists with the different energy storage technologies. According to the results, on a day with high wind energy levels the gain obtained by time shifting wind energy from low to high demand hours could reach 68,1%, and on a day with low wind energy levels, the gain obtained by time shifting wind energy could reach 19,3%.