Stochastic modelling of renewable energy sources from operators' point-of-view: A survey

High penetration of renewable energy sources, especially weather-dependent sources, has increased the power systems uncertainties. For any analysis in power systems such as planning and operation, it is essential to confront the stochastic nature of these sources in order to get much more precise results. Since operators need proper strategies and methods to decline negative effects of the stochastic behaviour of renewable power generators, such as total operation cost growth, this paper provides a review of different state-of-the-art approaches from the operator's viewpoint for handling the stochastic behaviour of renewable sources. Hence, in this paper, three different strategies are categorized for stochastic analysis of these sources. The first strategy is mathematical modelling including stochastic dependency and independency, multi-dimensional dependence, forecast and scenarios. Afterwards, demand side management, which is one of the other approaches for dealing with these uncertainties, is investigated and different demand response programs and some methods to model them are presented. Finally, the effect of different electricity market schemes and relevant optimization methods to mitigate the variations of renewable energy sources are discussed. The study demonstrates that an operator should choose one or a combination of these three approaches based on its requirements.