Cost-Benefit Analysis of Flexibility Retrofits for Coal and Gas-Fueled Power Plants: August 2012 - December 2013

Venkataraman, Sreekanth; Jordan, G.; O'connor, M. W.; Kumar, Naveen; Lefton, S.; Lew, D.; Brinkman, Gregory; Palchak, David; Cochran, Jaquelin

doi:10.2172/1118097

Cited by 16 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…As noted previously, the mechanisms to change the minimum generation of coal generators could include both changes to operational practices as well as physical modifications. Further explanation of retrofits to individual generators is provided in Venkataraman et al (2013), which found that benefits to the system are comparable to the costs of implementation. Cochran et al (2013) addresses some of these physical modifications and also summarizes many of the implications and challenges of the operational changes that would be required to run coal plants at lower output.…”

Section: Increased Flexibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It uses a subset of the Western Interconnection electric power system to quantify the impact of increased generator flexibility on overall production costs. Flexibility of this test system has been previously analyzed by Venkataraman et al (2013), which included a costbenefit analysis of certain retrofits available for combined-cycle and coal generation plants. They found that increased flexibility of a few plants decreased the costs of operating the system and were commensurate with the costs of installing the necessary upgrades.…”

Section: 20 1 Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impact of Generator Flexibility on Electric System Costs and Integration of Renewable Energy

Palchak

Denholm²

2014

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Flexibility of traditional generators plays an important role in accommodating the increased variability and uncertainty of wind and solar on the electric power system. Increased flexibility can be achieved with changes to operational practices or upgrades to existing generation. One challenge is in understanding the value of increasing flexibility, and how this value may change given higher levels of variable generation. This study uses a commercial production cost model to measure the impact of generator flexibility on the integration of wind and solar generators. We use a system that is based on two balancing areas in the Western United States with a range of wind and solar penetrations between 15% and 60%, where instantaneous penetration of wind and solar is limited to 80%. We evaluate the impact of reducing the minimum generation level of the coal generation fleet from 60% to 40% of nameplate capacity and observe the corresponding decrease in production costs. At low wind and solar penetration, this increased flexibility provides very little benefit. However, at higher levels of renewable penetration, increased flexibility results in decreased curtailments, which reduces fuel consumption and decreases the system production cost. We also examine the impact of relaxing the 80% penetration limit, assuming that active power controls and other new technologies allow wind and solar to provide system stability services. This further decreases production costs, particularly in very high penetration scenarios. In all scenarios, emissions of CO 2 decrease as flexibility is increased and more variable generation is accommodated.

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Section: Increased Flexibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: 20 1 Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Generator Flexibility on Electric System Costs and Integration of Renewable Energy

Palchak

Denholm²

2014

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“…In the past decade, energy utilities have been evaluating numerous refurbishment options or new operation practices to reduce the costs of the flexible operation of their thermal units and increase their capability to meet peak demand (suggested best practices have been reported in industrial literature [36,37]). Therefore, the power plant configuration and the corresponding cycling capability are variables of the energy system configuration-they can be optimised together with the supply mix as functions of costs and demands, in order to assess least-cost options to increase reliability of supply in scenarios with significantly increasing penetration of intermittent renewables.…”

Section: Refurbishment Optionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Representation of Balancing Options for Variable Renewables in Long-Term Energy System Models: An Application to OSeMOSYS

et al. 2019

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The growing complexity and the many challenges related to fast-changing and highly de-carbonised electricity systems require reliable and robust open source energy modelling frameworks. Their reliability may be tested on a series of well-posed benchmarks that can be used and shared by the modelling community. This paper describes and integrates stand-alone, independent modules to compute the costs and benefits of flexible generation options in the open source energy investment modelling framework OSeMOSYS. The modules are applied to a case study that may work as a benchmark. The whole documentation of the modules and the test case study are retrievable, reproducible, reusable, interoperable, and auditable. They create a case to help establish a FAIR-compliant, user-friendly, and low-threshold model and data standards in modelling practices. As is well known, one of the options for balancing high shares of variable renewables is flexible power generation by dispatchable units. The associated costs need to be considered for short-term operational analyses and for long-term investment plans. The added modules contribute to extending the modelling capacity by introducing (a) costs of ramping, (b) non-linear decrease of efficiency at partial load operation, and (c) refurbishment of existing units in the cost minimisation objective function of OSeMOSYS. From application to the test case study, two main insights are drawn: costs of ramping and decreased partial load efficiency may influence the competitiveness of generation technologies in the provision of reserve capacity; and refurbishment of existing units may represent attractive investment options for increasing flexibility. Both effects are also seen in the long-term and may impact infrastructure investment decisions to meet decarbonisation targets. These effects would not be captured without the introduction of the modules.

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“…Flexible generation refers to increasing the ramp rate and range of conventional generators to respond better to the net load shape created by additional PV. It also refers to increasing the ability to start and stop generators more frequently (Palchak and Denholm 2014;Venkataraman et al 2013).…”

Section: Flexible Generationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Technical changes can also provide more flexibility from individual generators. New gas-fired generation typically can provide significant ramp rates and multiple operating reserves (Venkataraman et al 2013). Certain new gas-fired combustion turbines and reciprocating engines are capable of very short start times, and these units could even provide some fraction of traditional synchronized (spinning) reserves without being online (Wärtsilä and Energy Exemplar 2014).…”

Section: Flexible Generationmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Path to SunShot - Emerging Issues and Challenges in Integrating High Levels of Solar into the Electrical Generation and Transmission System

Denholm

Clark

O’Connell

2016

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Preface The U.S. Department of Energy launched the SunShot Initiative in 2011 with the goal of making solar electricity cost-competitive with conventionally generated electricity by 2020. At the time this meant reducing photovoltaic and concentrating solar power prices by approximately 75%relative to 2010 costs-across the residential, commercial, and utility-scale sectors. To examine the implications of this ambitious goal, the Department of Energy's Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) published the SunShot Vision Study in 2012. The study projected that achieving the SunShot price-reduction targets could result in solar meeting roughly 14% of U.S. electricity demand by 2030 and 27% by 2050-while reducing fossil fuel use, cutting emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, creating solar-related jobs, and lowering consumer electricity bills. The SunShot Vision Study also acknowledged, however, that realizing the solar price and deployment targets would face a number of challenges. Both evolutionary and revolutionary technological changes would be required to hit the cost targets, as well as the capacity to manufacture these improved technologies at scale in the U.S. Additionally, operating the U.S. transmission and distribution grids with increasing quantities of solar energy would require advances in grid-integration technologies and techniques. Serious consideration would also have to be given to solar siting, regulation, and water use. Finally, substantial new financial resources and strategies would need to be directed toward solar deployment of this magnitude in a relatively short period of time. Still the study suggested that the resources required to overcome these challenges were well within the capabilities of the public and private sectors. SunShot-level price reductions, the study concluded, could accelerate the evolution toward a cleaner, more costeffective and more secure U.S. energy system. That was the assessment in 2012. Today, at the halfway mark to the SunShot Initiative's 2020 target date, it is a good time to take stock: How much progress has been made? What have we learned? What barriers and opportunities must still be addressed to ensure that solar technologies achieve cost parity in 2020 and realize their full potential in the decades beyond? To answer these questions, SETO launched the On the Path to SunShot series in early 2015 in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and with contributions from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). The series of technical reports focuses on the areas of grid integration, technology improvements, finance and policy evolution, and environment impacts and benefits. The resulting reports examine key topics that must be addressed to achieve the SunShot Initiative's price-reduction and deployment goals. The On the Path to SunShot series includes the following reports: • Emerging Issues and Challenges with Integrating High Levels of Solar i...

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Cost-Benefit Analysis of Flexibility Retrofits for Coal and Gas-Fueled Power Plants: August 2012 - December 2013

Cited by 16 publications

References 0 publications

Impact of Generator Flexibility on Electric System Costs and Integration of Renewable Energy

Impact of Generator Flexibility on Electric System Costs and Integration of Renewable Energy

Representation of Balancing Options for Variable Renewables in Long-Term Energy System Models: An Application to OSeMOSYS

On the Path to SunShot - Emerging Issues and Challenges in Integrating High Levels of Solar into the Electrical Generation and Transmission System

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