Dispatch strategy to minimise uncertainty in wind power generation in the Australian national electricity market

With increased penetration of wind power, scheduling generators to meet the forecast demand of a power system is becoming an increasingly challenging task for the system operators. Uncertainty associated with the generation expected from wind plants adds to the load demand uncertainty, making it necessary to retain additional reserves to maintain the balance between demand and supply of power. In the Australian national electricity market (NEM), sophisticated wind forecasting techniques are employed to reduce the uncertainty in wind generation. Despite being able to project the contribution of wind power to a reasonable accuracy, wind power plants are currently not considered to be dispatchable resources in the NEM. This paper discusses the possibility of assigning firm generation responsibilities to wind plants, especially in a dynamic electricity markets as the NEM, where the generation scheduling happens between five to ten minutes ahead of actual dispatch.