Risk limiting dispatch of wind power

Integrating wind and solar power into the grid requires dispatching various types of reserve generation to compensate for the randomness of renewable power. The dispatch is usually determined by a system operator (SO) or an aggregator who `firms' variable energy by bundling it with conventional power. The optimal dispatch is formulated as the solution to a stochastic control problem and shown to have a closed form that can be quickly computed. Different objectives and risk constraints can be included in the formulation and trade-offs can be evaluated. In particular one can quantify the influence of sequential forecasts on the total integration cost and the choice of dispatched generation. When the forecast error is Gaussian, the optimal dispatch policy can be precomputed.