Generation Capacity Planning with Significant Renewable Energy Penetration Considering Base-Load Cycling Capacity Constraints

Base-load cycling capacity (BLCC) shortage problem may seriously affect the integration scale of renewable energy. The ability to improve the BLCC only by operational dispatch of conventional plants is very limited. Therefore, it is critical to guarantee adequate BLCC at the capacity planning level. However, the BLCC have been ignored currently at yearly planning stage. In this paper, a yearly generation capacity planning model considering the BLCC constraints is proposed based on the screening curves method. With this model, an optimal mix of generation capacity can be obtained. Through dispatching conventional plants of the optimal mix, the BLCC constraint of each day in the planning year can be satisfied. Then, the impacts of cost parameters and renewable energy integration scale on the optimal mix are theoretically analyzed. Numerical simulations are presented to verify the reasonableness and effectiveness of the theoretical analysis.