Upgrading Wind and Storage Resources for Increased Demand-Side Energy Generation and Market Value

Energy generation from renewable sources promises to help bring sustainability to the electricity system. Wind turbines have been used to intercept wind flows while energy storage promises to help in reducing the effect of intermittency in renewables. While the net benefits of installing Distributed Energy Resources (DER) are diverse and locational, this work examines adding new wind turbines and battery storage to the existing wind turbines on a distribution network that has a typical daily peak load around 1000 kW and a base load around 500 kW. The DERs were deployed in different scales; first, to increase demand side generation of wind energy only and secondly, for stacked services. While the NEPLAN 360 modelling tool was used for the technical analysis to assess the effect of the upgrade, an economic analysis was performed through the payback period on investment. The results suggest that – given the current market structure at this location – deploying more DERs just for increased demand-side generation, while technically achievable, is not economically feasible. The upgrading approaches profitability as the storage is deployed to provide more stacked services across the electricity grid – could be achieved with favourable market policies.