The utilization of wind energy will pose great socioeconomic benefits with reductions in power plant emissions and the supply of zero cost... Show moreThe utilization of wind energy will pose great socioeconomic benefits with reductions in power plant emissions and the supply of zero cost energy; however, largescale wind energy integration could introduce inevitable challenges to regional transmission systems and hourly system operations. This thesis addresses the congestion identification, simulation and analysis of large-scale electric power systems in different scenarios, large-scale wind energy integration and related transmission expansion issues. A methodology based on the security-constrained unit commitment (SCUC) is applied to analyze the transmission congestions in the Eastern Interconnection of the United States. The identified congestions are visualized along with the Geographical Information System (GIS) data and compared with the results in National Electric Transmission Congestion Study (NETCS) published by the Department of Energy of the United States in 2006. The study also provides the locational marginal price (LMP) information in the Eastern Interconnection, which is not available in the NETCS report. This thesis implements a comprehensive simulation and scenario analysis of the Illinois electric power system for the year 2011. Possible scenarios representing electrical load sensitivities to economic growth, fuel price variations, and the impact of carbon cost, are studied. This thesis presents the hourly simulation results for the large-scale wind energy integration in the Eastern Interconnection of the United States. An hourly unit commitment is applied for the simulation of the economics of wind energy integration in the year 2030. The energy portfolio for supplying the hourly load in 2030 is developed based on wind integration levels. The sensitivities of fuel price, wind energy quantity, xvii load forecast, carbon cost, and load management to the proposed 2030 wind integration are studied. This thesis identifies transmission congestions and expands the existing transmission system in the Eastern Interconnection of the United States for accommodating a large-scale integration of wind energy. Violated transmission flows which would cause the infeasibility of hourly SCUC are identified. An iterative transmission expansion analysis is implemented to identify the minimum required additions to the Eastern Interconnection for mitigating hourly transmission congestions. Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, July 2011 Show less
