MEETING THE ELECTRICITY NEEDS OF AN IRISH LOCAL AUTHORITY WITH WIND POWER

摘要

The Electricity Regulation Act 1999 introduced partial liberalization of the electricity market in Ireland, with a view to full liberalisation by 2005. The restructuring of the market allows eligible customers (those with an annual consumption of more than 1GWh, and all green electricity customers) to purchase electricity from a supplier of their choosing. The provision of fair third party access to the electricity grid allows independent generators to compete with the incumbent generator (ESB) for contracts with suppliers. The objective of the work described in this paper is to assess the economic viability of an Irish wind generated electricity supplier supplying a local authority with electricity. The local authority seeks a minimum 5% reduction on its annual electricity bill, and the supplier (who is also the generator) wishes to ensure that this can be done in a manner that is more financially rewarding than the current alternative, i.e. seeking a contract under the Alternative Energy Requirement Scheme (AER) A computer model was produced to simulate, using one year of historic data, the real-time operations of the generator, the consumer and the dynamic market that binds them. The model was developed so as to allow for comparison between existing, and a variety of proposed trading arrangements, and hence to evaluate potential benefits.