Flexible Wind Dispatch, System Reliability and EPA's Clean Power Plan

Forty percent of CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel, in the United States, are generated by the electric power sector. In June 2014, the US Environmental Protection Agency issued the Clean Power Plan under the Clean Air Act Section 111(d), intended to reduce CO₂ emissions caused by electricity generation. Reducing CO₂ emissions is one of the main motivations for increasing wind power and other renewable energy use, and this option is included in EPA's Clean Power Plan. This paper applies a Monte Carlo framework with a two-stage OPF analysis to simulate the implementation of EPA's proposal. Potential CO₂ emission reduction along with possible cost and reliability concerns from increased use of wind power and energy efficiency measures are quantified. The results show that EPA's proposal does achieve significant emission reduction, but also potentially increases the cost of electricity and could force load curtailment if significant wind is installed. Allowing for recourse to flexible dispatch of wind power and to real-time demand response along with EPA's Clean Power Plan eliminates these concerns.