Development of a maintenance scheduling method for power generators considering large penetration of variable renewable energy sources and system inertia

Abstract

Conventional methods to schedule power generators maintenance aim to secure enough supply reserve margin to the power system when its power generators have to go under maintenance. However, the use of such methods in scenarios of large penetration of VRE, might be problematic. This is because in such scenarios conventional scheduling methods might inadvertently concentrate maintenance operations when residual demand is particularly low, creating situations in which there is insufficient supply-demand balancing capability and inertia to operate the power system properly. In this study, we present the development of a new method to schedule generator maintenance that ensure inertia and balancing capability constraints, and show its effectiveness.