A new paper led by Elnaz Kabir, now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Technology & Industrial Distribution at Texas A&M, has been published in Renewable Energy. This paper was co-authored with several Cornell BEE collaborators, including Scott Steinschneider, M. Vivienne Liu, and C. Lindsay Anderson, and stemmed from Dr. Kabir’s postdoc with Professors Anderson, Steinschneider, and Srikrishnan at Cornell.

The study looked at the planned 2030 configuration of the New York State electric power system under the Community Leadership and Climate Protection Act (CLCPA), which provides one of the most ambitious plans to decarbonize a bulk power system in the world, as an exemplar for other power systems undergoing renewable-driven transitions to net-zero emissions. We looked at the co-variability of wind, solar, and hydropower to find the impacts on reliability and electricity prices. We found:

  • Hybridization across wind, solar, and hydropower reduces the net variation in generating resources by around a half of the variability of the individual resources;
  • Solar and wind variability result in price volatility on shorter time scales (daily and hourly), while hydropower availability is responsible for yearly annual price changes.