Economic and Operational Reliability Benefits of Wave Energy Integration in the U.S. Western Interconnection Kerem Ziya Akdemir1, Bryson Robertson2,3, Konstantinos Oikonomou2, Jordan Kern1, Nathalie Voisin2,4, Diane Baldwin2, Saptarshi Bhattacharya2 1 North Carolina State University; 2 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; 3 Oregon State University; 4 University of Washington 1. Introduction 2. Methods 3. Results 4. Conclusions 5. References Motivation: • Renewable energy integration is critical for ensuring a sustainable and decarbonized future energy landscape. As grids are decarbonized, grid operators need to find alternative methods to maintain reliability during normal operations and extreme weather events. • Marine energy resources (including wave, tidal, and ocean currents) have significant potential to emerge as effective clean generation alternatives. • Compared to other renewable resources such as solar and wind, wave energy and tidal energy are more periodic, persistent, and predictable. • Wave energy is the most scalable among marine energy resources and its integration into bulk power system operation has proven potential to improve operational reliability and resiliency. Research Objective: Studying the effect of wave power integration on power system operations through an optimization-based unit commitment/economic dispatch (UC/ED) model under: ➢Different transmission expansion scenarios, ➢Extreme weather scenario, ➢Transmission line contingency scenario. [1] Akdemir, K. Z., Robertson, B., Oikonomou, K., Kern, J., Voisin, N., Hanif, S., & Bhattacharya, S. (2023). Opportunities for wave energy in bulk power system operations. Applied Energy, 352, 121845. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.121845 [2] Akdemir, K. Z., Oikonomou, K., Kern, J. D., Voisin, N., Ssembatya, H., & Qian, J. (2024). An open-source framework for balancing computational speed and fidelity in production cost models. Environmental Research: Energy, 1(1), 015003. https://doi.org/10.1088/2753-3751/ad1751 [3] Bhattacharya, S., Pennock, S., Robertson, B., Hanif, S., Alam, M. J. E., Bhatnagar, D., Preziuso, D., & O’Neil, R. (2021). Timing value of marine renewable energy resources for potential grid applications. Applied Energy, 299, 117281. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117281 Figure 1: Reduced order 134-node representation of U.S. Western Interconnection (GO WEST model) Session Number/Abstract ID: GC15/1292933 Contact Information: kakdemi@ncsu.edu • Open-source production cost modeling framework for the U.S. Western Interconnection (GO WEST) is used as a baseline to create the specific test case for wave energy integration. This is a Python-based software where the users can create a reduced network representation of U.S. interconnections through customization parameters and simulate grid operations through a UC/ED model. • In order to study the impact of marine renewable energy (MRE) resources in a scalable manner, a systematic model reduction is performed to design an equivalent reduced topology for the entire U.S. Western Interconnection. • In this study, we selected 134 nodes to represent grid operations. 10 nodes throughout the Western Interconnection are selected specifically to host wave power generators (2 in Washington, 4 in Oregon, and 4 in northern California). • GO WEST’s objective is to minimize the total cost of providing necessary electricity to meet the total demand across the entire power system, subject to constraints that restrict the generator commitment and dispatch decisions such as generator ramp rate limits and maximum generator capacities. • Model outputs include the generation schedule of each generator, power flow on each transmission line, locational marginal prices (LMP) at each node, and unserved energy at each node. Integrating Wave Energy without Transmission Expansion Figure 2: Average nodal LMP changes due to wave power integration for 2 wave power capacities in 2019 without transmission expansion (