Engineering topics
McBennett, Brendan
Publications and source records attributed to McBennett, Brendan.
The IEEE Reliability Test System: A Proposed 2019 Update
The evolving nature of electricity production, transmission and consumption necessitates an update to the IEEE's Reliability Test System, which was last modernized in 1996. The update introduced here introduces a generation mix more representative of modern power systems, with the removal of several nuclear and oil generating units and the addition of natural gas, wind, solar photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, and energy storage. The update includes assigning the test system a geographic location in the southwestern United States to enable the integration of spatio-temporally consistent wind, solar, and load data with forecasts. Further updates include common RTS transmission modifications in published literature, definitions for reserve product requirements and market simulation descriptions to enable benchmarking of multi-period power system scheduling problems. The final section reflects example results from a production cost modeling simulation on the updated RTS system data.
Multi-operator Production Cost Modeling
As contiguous power systems are often operated by several regional system operators, optimization models have traditionally been designed to generate optimal system-wide scheduling decisions. This report introduces an approach to reflect the existence of multiple system operators making scheduling decisions within an interconnected power system. The approach is explicitly designed to reflect each operator's limited knowledge about other regions when making scheduling decisions. Detailed analysis using a modified IEEE Reliability Test System reveals that the approach mimics real system operations by providing imperfect information to each operator about external operations and external constraints. The approach scales to a 78,000-bus model of the Eastern Interconnection, where a regression analysis provides quantitative insight into which constraints cause inefficiencies when improperly managed in a multi-operator simulation. Because the approach generates distinct regional scheduling problems, unit commitment and economic dispatch simulations can be applied to individual regions and solved in parallel, enabling production cost simulations at a previously intractable scale.
Cross-Border Energy Trade between Nepal and India: Assessment of Trading Opportunities
This study builds on several prior analyses of cross-border energy trading in South Asia to explore the potential trading opportunities between India, Nepal, and the larger South Asia region, including Bangladesh and Bhutan. It uses a detailed one-year, 1-hour resolution unit commitment and economic dispatch model of the South Asia power system to examine the technical and economic impacts of imports and exports under different assumptions about hydropower development in Nepal and regional trade agreements in the year 2022.
Cross-Border Electricity Trade between India and Sri Lanka: Impact on Power System Operations
Recent developments in South Asia have the potential to increase the incentives for cross-border energy trade (CBET) between India and Sri Lanka. India's surplus power, including from its rapid expansion of wind and solar generation, provides an incentive for it to increase investment returns through exports. Sri Lanka is considering options to increase its power supply, and CBET could alleviate the need for investments in new thermal generation capacity, while giving it access to India's large and diverse power system. Finally, CBET can facilitate renewable energy (RE) integration by allowing the two countries to more efficiently harness balancing resources and smooth out wind and solar variability over larger geographic areas. This study builds on several prior analyses of a potential high-voltage direct current transmission link between India and Sri Lanka. Uniquely, the study makes use of a detailed one-year, 30-minute resolution unit commitment and economic dispatch (UC&ED) model of both countries to examine the technical and economic impacts of CBET between India and Sri Lanka in the year 2025. The study finds that CBET, enabled by a 500-MW high voltage direct current transmission link, could generate annual production cost savings of USD 180 million and improve power system operations. Through better utilization of the most efficient generators, generation from relatively expensive natural gas plants in Sri Lanka is displaced by lower cost imports from India. In addition, increased flexibility through exports reduces RE curtailment in India's Southern region by 400 GWh annually. While the study captures many previously unconsidered intertemporal operational constraints, it does not provide a complete characterization of system operations with a high-voltage direct current interconnection. Additional work should include a dynamic analysis of system stability following interruptions to the direct current interconnection, an AC power flow analysis and consideration of any non-technical barriers to trade which might prevent the optimization of CBET between India and Sri Lanka at 30-minute timescales.