Wind Integration in Nova Scotia

To evaluate the impacts of different wind penetration levels on the Nova Scotia system, AUTO Vista, the optimization/simulation model which can model hydro, the external energy sources (e.g. wind, thermal) and the reserve requirement for the external energy sources, in combination, for up to a full year on an hourly basis, was used to perform the wind integration study.

The Nova Scotia Power system modeled within the AUTO Vista environment includes over 33 hydroelectric plants on several rivers within the province. Also included in the modeling environment are the other non-hydro generating systems:

AUTO Vista is the long-term planning and analysis component of the Vista suite of programs. AUTO Vista optimizes the long-term operation of the hydraulic system using detailed operational procedures analogous to those used in actual practice. To do this, AUTO Vista uses LT Vista (long-term) to guide long-term water management decisions and ST Vista (short-term) to dispatch generating units on an hourly basis. AUTO Vista automatically invokes LT Vista and ST Vista multiple times over the analytical horizon. This approach (that is, using both long-term and short-term analyses) yields a realistic hourly time series of water levels, discharges and power generation. AUTO Vista considers the physical constraints, operating conditions, and operating constraints.

The tasks for the Nova Scotia study included evaluation of:

• generation coordination between hydro and wind and its effects on reservoir operations,
  
• different levels of wind generation penetration in combination with high, median and low hydrologies and,
  
• reserve requirement necessary to support the wind energy supply and its impact on operation.