TABLE OF CONTENTS For system equilibrium, electrical generation must equal the load demand, as discussed in Section 5.2, so that the ideal system demand profile would be invariant. Under such circumstances, the most efficient generation could be scheduled to operate continuously at the desired level. However, the daily variation in electrical demand and the variable nature of renewable energy sources requires that (thermal) generating units be scheduled to start up/shut down in sympathy with load variation, with most of these units being further required to participate in load-following and cycling behaviour. In Section 5.3, against a background of increasing wind generation, various measures were examined to lessen the load-following burden placed on the remaining synchronous plant: prediction of wind farm output; integrating wind forecasting into unit commitment; geographical dispersion; incorporation of power electronics control (DFIGs); and reduction in wind farm variability by regulating wind turbine output. All of these approaches attempt to overcome the difficulties of predicting wind farm power output accurately and reliably, so that an instantaneous balance is achieved between demand and generation. However, it is much more straightforward to predict wind farm energy production (e.g. it will be windy sometime this afternoon).
Although many utilities possess pumped storage plant, little focus has been placed on the potential roles that management of load behaviour can play in reducing demand variability and/or scheduling of load blocks to fill demand troughs or shave demand peaks and partially decouple energy production from energy...
