Impact of High Variable Renewable Penetrations on Dynamic Operating Reserves in Future Indonesian Electricity Industry Scenarios

This paper investigates the impact of high variable
renewable energy (VRE) penetrations on dynamic operating
reserves, focusing on the future of Indonesia’s Java-Bali grid.
We use an open source evolutionary programming-based
techno-economic optimization model, National Electricity
Market Optimizer (NEMO), to first assesses possible least cost
generation mixes both with and without VRE, and under
different carbon pricing scenarios and reserves requirements.
While low cost generation, major deployment of wind and solar
still requires high levels of conventional dispatchable plant,
typically thermal and hydro, and while there are costs associated
with this overhead, it does have interesting implications for
operating reserves. Our study explores this issue and shows that
not only might wind and solar reduce overall industry costs for
Java-Bali in 2030, the resulting generation mix would have
significantly higher reserves, and hence ability to cover
unexpected plant failures and other interruptions, over most of
the periods with considerably high demand.