The Optimal Configuration of Solar Power Plants and Wind Farms in the Power System of Myanmar

Abstract

In integrating wind farms and solar PV power plants into a united energy system, their incorporation into energy complexes with operational dispatch control makes it possible to achieve more reliable electric power generation, smooth the daily and seasonal non-uniformity of electricity generation by energy complexes, etc. The article describes a newly developed methodology for determining the optimal energy complex configuration, with which it becomes possible to use the non-simultaneous arrival of wind and solar resources to the sites of individual wind farms and solar PV power plants in the most efficient way. The problem considered falls under the category of multi-criteria optimization problems and can be resolved by searching through all possible options with assessing their significance using the rank-based method. The practical applicability of the developed methodology is demonstrated taking an energy complex that is part of the Myanmar’s united power system as an example. The energy complex considered includes two solar PV power plants with a total capacity of 60 MW, an onshore wind farm with a capacity of 33 MW, and an offshore wind farm with a capacity of 32 MW. The locations and capacities of the solar PV power plants, and of the onshore wind farm were taken based on the long-term development plan of the Myanmar united power system. The location and parameters of the offshore wind farm were selected by the authors. It is shown that, given the non-simultaneous arrival of the wind and solar resources to the sites of the considered wind farms and solar PV power plants, the optimal energy complex composition is obtained, with a 95% probability, if the combined capacity of the above-mentioned renewable energy sources makes 4.7% of the energy complex’ total installed capacity.