The Value of Energy Flexibility: Integrating Wind Resources in New York State

This paper explores the effects of energy system flexibility on the contribution of wind generation to the New York State (NYS) electricity generation mix. First, the benefits of NYS-specific flexible hydropower are investigated. For all simulations, a mixed integer linear program minimizes net load to determine the maximum aggregate capacity factor for the installed wind power. A similar routine explores the benefits of three different types of energy flexibility: flexible supply, flexible demand, and bidirectional flexibility (i.e. energy storage). To compare across technologies, a novel method of standardizing flexibility inputs, Potential Flexible Energy (PFE), is introduced. With 30 GW wind capacity in NYS (average electricity demand of 18.7 GW), introducing electric vehicles with an average load of 1.44 GW and daily available battery capacity of 34.5 GWh (roughly equivalent to the daily use of 3.4 million passenger EVs) increases statewide wind utilization by 840 MW (9.0% of wind potential and 4.5% of average load). Added flexibility in the form of energy storage yields similar results: with 3.2 GW charge/discharge capability and 76.8 GWh storage capacity, statewide wind utilization increases by an average of 660 MW (7.0% of wind potential and 3.5% of average load). Because of transmission constraints and the geographic distribution of high-potential wind resources, increased wind utilization is only achieved when flexibility is added in the region where 86% of the 30 GW simulated wind capacity is located.