Debra Lew NREL WestConnect Planning Meeting Western Wind and Solar Integration Study Update

High Renewables Basecase 2017 WindSolar PVConcentrating Solar Power Total Study footprint (WestConnect) 30% by energy 1.5%3.5%35% 28,256 MW2472 MW2884 MW33,613 MW Rest of WECC20%0.9%2.1%23% 36,767 MW2895 MW3378 MW43,040 MW Total65,023 MW5368 MW6262 MW76,654 MW

Scenarios “In-area” –Each transmission area meets 35% of its load from wind and solar sites in that area “Mega projects” –Each transmission area meets 35% of its load from wind and solar sites that have the least cost of delivered energy “Local priority” –Similar to Mega projects but with small bonus given to in-area sites “High solar” –Similar to Mega projects or Local priority but with ~10% solar penetration “High capacity value” –Each transmission area meets 35% of its load from wind and solar sites that are best correlated with load -have highest capacity value “High geographic diversity” –Each transmission area meets 35% of its load from wind and solar sites that are geographically diverse

Preliminary Analysis (being revised) Study area wind penetration by capacity is 137% of min load and 49% of max load The highest penetration rates are in Southern Nevada with wind as 217% of min load and in Northern Nevada with wind as 66% of max load

April 2006 (being revised) Net load (load minus wind minus solar) is highly variable with some negative net load for a few hours this month

Oct 8, 2006 (being revised)

Need for Subhourly PV Analysis Source: Tom Hansen, Tucson Electric Power

Tasks and Schedule Stakeholder Meeting (5/23/07) Data Collection (second half ‘07) –Wind and solar mesoscale modeling (3TIER, SUNY, NREL) –Utility load, generator, transmission data (Exeter) Preliminary Analysis (first half ‘08) - GE –Extensive statistical analysis with various options for wind/solar sites and transmission Scenario Development (8/08) - GE –In-state vs out-of-state resources –Geographically diverse resources –Mega projects –Best correlated with load Stakeholder Meeting (8/14/08) Revise statistical analysis and scenarios with new wind data Run Scenarios (start Jan ‘09) - GE –Examine costs due to regulation, load following, unit commitment –“Dives” to investigate issues such as Hoover –Examine mitigation strategies/options –Determine contributions to reliability and capacity value Stakeholder Meeting – Preliminary Results (Apr/May ‘09) Stakeholder Meeting and Final Report (Sep/Oct ‘09)

Information WWSIS –Website at – –Western wind dataset at – Contact –Debra Lew –