A framework for the assessment of electric heating load flexibility contribution to mitigate severe wind power ramp effects

A great share of wind power generation in a power system is likely to test the system flexibility with extreme power ramp events. Therefore, this paper proposes a framework that allows the assessment of electricity demand flexibility on these events. Two electric heating methods are of particular interest, since heating is an attractive source of flexibility in a cold climate. The proposed framework consists of generating wind generation scenarios, identifying severe ramps, and solving a system unit commitment (UC) problem, with and without demand response (DR), when these ramps occur. These stages are integrated into a Monte Carlo simulation technique, which allows the capturing of the electric heating load contribution to mitigate ramp effects in different system conditions. The contribution is investigated in case studies and evaluated with several measures.