Enhancing Wind Energy Integration by Co-optimizing Energy Storage Systems and Transmission Switching

With an increasing integration of intermittent renewable energy, more and more energy storage systems (ESS) are used to smooth the output of renewable energy resources or perform generation time-shifting. At the same time, transmission congestion is a leading cause for renewable energy curtailment, and transmission switching (TS) a proven cost-effective technique for transmission congestion mitigation. At present, a co-optimization model for both technologies in an operation framework still does not exist. This work aims to propose an operation model for co-optimizing TS and ESS, in order to study the impact of transmission switching on the performance of ESS. Results show that optimally using TS can boost the capability of ESS to reduce renewable energy curtailment, and it is essential to co-optimize the two technologies for enhanced renewable energy integration.