Flexibility Analysis of Thermal Generation for Renewable Energy Integration in India

The installation of Renewable energy (RE) is increasing due to the rise in environmental awareness, carbon footprint, low gestation periods competitive prices and other factors. The addition of variable RE generation requires flexibility from the conventional generation in the grid. Flexibility is the ability of the power system to adapt to the changes in the operating range. Thus, flexible resources are an important tool required by a system operator for stable, reliable, and economic power system operation. Thermal Generators being a major energy resource of the Indian Power system, flexibility support from these generating units is of utmost importance. Ramp – Up/ Ramp down Rate, Minimum Generation levels, Minimum up-time, Minimum Down time, Start –up and shut-downs time are the key flexibility indices of a thermal generating unit. This paper summarizes actual Ramping and flexibility support provided by 438 thermal generating units of size 200 MW and above in India for the duration of April 2011 to March 2018. The impact of the flexibility parameters on the economic dispatch has also been presented in this paper.