Evaluation of a Minute Synthesis Irradiation Model for the Frequency Containment Reserve : Disturbance down-regulation market

Abstract: With the increase in energy demand, and therefore, in energy generation, new high voltage direct current export links and overseas connections of large amounts of power are being introduced. These new links are subject to possible malfunction or failures, which may causea substantial frequency increase in the power system. The need of restorative measurements for over-frequencies is then necessary to regulate this probable imbalance. A new ancillary market product for frequency down-regulation is then being introduced. The Frequency Containment Reserves – Disturbances for downregulation is a service used to handle overfrequencies in the power system. The ancillary market has been historically dominated by hydro, however, with the local plans that set goals to reach 100 % renewable electricity production by the year 2040, ineluctably solar and wind will be occupying a large share of the energy generation, thus the amount of renewable resources to provide ancillary services will increase as well. Nevertheless, requirements to participate in the ancillary market are strict, and renewables face challenges such as unpredictable power generation, making forecasting tools essential for their participation. In this thesis, through the literature and research of an emerging field, the synthetic solar irradiance, an algorithm with adjusted parameters is replicated with the objective of downscaling solar irradiance presumptive-forecasts from 15-minute intervals to 1-minute intervals. An updated clear-sky model, and weather categorization method is used as input to improve the results of the synthesis. A year evaluation with a method to detect irradiance dips is used to evaluate the algorithm. The result of this study contributes with positive outputs. The introduction of this secondary tool to estimate higher resolution irradiance variability data proves to obtain, at 57 % of the point-to-point critical cases examination, an over-estimation of the measured irradiance. This, in turn, grants the actors that participate with solar power the option to adjust the bidding strategy process in the ancillary market accordingly to the output of this tool.