The case for a renewable power control center.

Byline: Dr. Shahid Rahim

Electricity generation from renewable sources such as solar and wind offers numerous benefits to the country, but their intermittent and variable nature poses multiple challenges when their share in the grid exceeds beyond certain minimum levels. Without dedicated storage, renewable power generation plants are considered "non-dispatchable" as system planners and operators cannot rely on them to serve the continuously changing demand of electricity in their systems the same way they are accustomed to in the traditional grid. Below, we explore the viability of a facility, renewable power control center, between renewable generators and grid operators that can ease to a considerable degree the intermittency and variability of renewable power generation plants.

Renewable power generation technologies, especially those based on solar and wind, are making rapid inroads into the power grids around the world. In its flagship Renewables 2021 Global Status Report, REN21, a global leader in compiling renewable energy statistics and policy initiatives, notes that despite the COVID19-induced economic slowdown, 139 GW of PV and 93 GW of wind capacities were added in the global power grid during 2020 leading to a total PV capacity of 760 GW and 743 GW of wind capacity in the world. Total investment on renewable power projects exceeded USD 300 billion during the last year. Additions of renewable power generation capacity outpaced the collective additions of both fossil fuel and nuclear power capacity. The march of renewables now seems unstoppable as these plants have started to compete head-to-head with their conventional competitors even without any policy support.

We must note, however, that renewable power generation technologies are inherently different from the conventional fossil-fuel and nuclear-fuel based power generation technologies. In contrast to conventional technologies which rely on the stocks of exhaustible primary resources, solar and wind technologies base on natural flows of primary resources. Despite being ubiquitous, these resources are scattered, diffused, and also unpredictable and variable. Planning, decision-making, and financing frameworks and operational practices that have evolved around large-sized conventional projects in a centralized power supply and delivery system are not amenable for embracing small-sized, distributed, and diffuse-resource based power generation schemes.

Adding renewable capacity in the supply portfolio at any significant penetration levels poses both planning as well as operational challenges. Two key issues the planners face in developing long-term optimal plans...