Emerging integration of renewable energy has prompted a wide range of research on the use of energy storage to compensate for the added uncertainty that accompanies these resources. In the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), compressed air energy storage (CAES) has drawn particular attention because Texas has suitable geology and also lacks appropriate resources and locations for pumped hydroelectric storage (PHS). While there have been studies on incorporation of renewable energy, utilization of energy storage, and dispatch optimization, this is the first body of work to integrate all these subjects along with the proven ability to recreate historical dispatch and price conditions. To quantify the operational behavior, economic feasibility, and environmental impacts of CAES, this work utilized sophisticated unit commitment and dispatch (UC&D) models that determine the least-cost dispatch for meeting a set of grid and generator constraints. This work first addressed the ability of these models to recreate historical dispatch and price conditions through a calibration analysis that incorporated major model improvements such as capacity availability and sophisticated treatment of combined heat and power (CHP) plants. These additions appreciably improved the consistency of the model results when compared to historical ERCOT conditions. An initial UC&D model was used to investigate the impacts on the dispatch of a future high wind generation scenario with the potential to utilize numerous CAES facilities. For all future natural gas prices considered, the addition of CAES led to reduced use of high marginal cost generator types, increased use of base-load generator types, and average reductions in the total operating costs of 3.7 million dollars per week. Additional analyses demonstrated the importance of allowing CAES to participate in all available energy and ancillary services (AS) markets and that a reduction in future thermal capacity would increase the use of CAES. A second UC&D model, which incorporated advanced features like variable marginal heat rates, was used to analyze the influence of future wind generation variability on the dispatch and resulting environmental impacts. This analysis revealed that higher amounts of wind variability led to an increase in the daily net load ramping requirements which resulted in less use of coal and nuclear generators in favor of faster ramping units along with reductions in emissions and water use. The changes to the net load also resulted in increased volatility of the energy and AS prices between daily minimum and maximum levels. These impacts were also found to increase with compounding intensity as higher levels of wind variability were reached. Lastly, the advanced UC&D model was also used to evaluate the operational behavior and potential economic feasibility of a first entrant conventional or adiabatic CAES system. Both storage systems were found to operate in a single mode that enabled very high utilization of their capacity indicating both systems have highly desirable characteristics. The results suggest that there is a positive case for the investment in a first entrant CAES facility in the ERCOT market. / text

Classically, wide-area synchronized power system monitoring has been an expensive task requiring significant investment in utility communications infrastructures for the service of relatively few costly sensors. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the viability of power system monitoring from very low voltage levels (120 V). Challenging the accepted norms in power system monitoring, the document will present the use of inexpensive GPS time synchronized sensors in mass numbers at the distribution level. In the past, such low level monitoring has been overlooked due to a perceived imbalance between the required investment and the usefulness of the resulting deluge of information. However, distribution level monitoring offers several advantages over bulk transmission system monitoring. First, practically everyone with access to electricity also has a measurement port into the electric power system. Second, internet access and GPS availability have become pedestrian commodities providing a communications and synchronization infrastructure for the transmission of low-voltage measurements. Third, these ubiquitous measurement points exist in an interconnected fashion irrespective of utility boundaries. This work offers insight into which parameters are meaningful to monitor at the distribution level and provides applications that add unprecedented value to the data extracted from this level. System models comprising the entire Eastern Interconnection are exploited in conjunction with a bounty of distribution level measurement data for the development of wide-area disturbance detection, classification, analysis, and location routines. The main contributions of this work are fivefold: the introduction of a novel power system disturbance detection algorithm; the development of a power system oscillation damping analysis methodology; the development of several parametric and non-parametric power system disturbance location methods, new methods of power system phenomena visualization, and the proposal and mapping of an online power system event reporting scheme. / Ph. D.

This dissertation details regulation's impact in networked markets, notably in deregulated electricity and internet service markets. These markets represent basic infrastructure in the modern economy; their innate networked structures make for rich fields of economic research on regulatory impact. The first chapter models deregulated electricity industries with a focus on the Texas market. Optimal economic benchmarks are considered for markets with regulated delivery and interrelated network costs. Using a model of regulator, consumer, and firm interaction, I determine the efficiency of the current rate formalization compared to Ramsey-Boiteux prices and two-part tariffs. I find within Texas's market increases to generator surplus up to 55% of subsidies could be achieved under Ramsey-Boiteux pricing or two-part tariffs, respectively. The second chapter presents a framework to analyze dynamic processes and long-run outcomes in two-sided markets, specifically dynamic platform and firm investment incentives within the internet-service platform/content provision market. I use the Ericson-Pakes framework applied within a platform that chooses fees on either side of its two-sided market. This chapter determines the impact of network neutrality on platform investment incentives, specifically whether to improve the platform. I use a parameterized calibration from engineering reports and current ISP literature to determine welfare outcomes and industry behavior under network neutral and non-neutral regimes. My final chapter explores retail firm failure within the deregulated Texas retail electricity market. This chapter investigates determinants of retail electric firm failures using duration analysis frameworks. In particular, this chapter investigates the impact of these determinants on firms with extant experience versus unsophisticated entrants. Understanding these determinants is an important component in evaluating whether deregulation achieves the impetus of competitive electricity market restructuring. Knowing which economic events decrease a market's competitiveness helps regulators to effectively evaluate policy implementations. I find that experience does benefit a firm's duration, but generally that benefit assists firm duration in an adverse macroeconomic environment rather than in response to adverse market conditions such as higher wholesale prices or increased transmission congestion. Additionally, I find evidence that within the Texas market entering earlier results in a longer likelihood of duration. / text