EWITS was designed to answer questions about technical issues related to a 20% wind energy scenario for electric demand in the Eastern Interconnection.
EWITS was the first of its kind in terms of scope, scale, and process. Initiated in 2007, the study was designed to examine the operational impact of up to 20% to 30% wind energy penetration on the bulk power system in the Eastern Interconnection of the United States.
SCENARIO DEVELOPMENT AND ANALYSIS
To set an appropriate backdrop for addressing the key study questions, the EWITS project team—with input from a wide range of project stakeholders including the Technical Review Committee (TRC)—carefully constructed four high-penetration scenarios to represent different wind generation development possibilities in the Eastern Interconnection. Three of these scenarios delivered wind energy equivalent to 20% of the projected annual electrical energy requirements in 2024; the fourth scenario increased the amount of wind energy to 30%.
In each scenario, individual wind plants from the Eastern Wind Data Study database (see sidebar) were selected to reach the target energy level. The wind data consisted of hourly and 10-minute wind plant data for each of three years: 2004, 2005, and 2006. Wind plants were available in all geographic locations within the Eastern Interconnection except off the shore of the southeastern United States and Canada (because of limitations on the scope of work for the wind modeling). Approximately 4 GW of new Canadian renewable generation was modeled to cover imports of new Canadian wind and hydro to the northeast...(read more...)
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