The impact of large-scale solar photovoltaic adoption on prices and reliability in the New England power pool

The potential role of renewable energy in producing electricity in industrialized countries has been gaining attention as issues like climate change and high fossil fuel prices more frequently occupy the minds of the public and policymakers. The higher levels of these technologies in power systems that are anticipated, or at least believably envisioned, make inquiries about their likely impacts on power systems relevant. The intermittency of technologies like wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) systems drives debates about whether larger scale adoption of these technologies will increase the cost of maintaining power system reliability. A more general question is simply whether these technologies will be like conventional capacity in their interaction with the larger power system, both physically and economically. These issues relate to the higher-profile debates about standby charges and if they are warranted. To address these questions, in part, for the New England power pool this study uses detailed historical data in two ways: to analyze the potential impact of large-scale adoption of PV on wholesale power prices and to compare the generation of PV systems in New England to the typical operation of conventional peaking units.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Martin, Katherine C

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David H. Marks.

• Technology and Policy Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34523

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34523