Assessing Complementarity for Wind and Solar Energy in New Zealand

Generation complementarity refers to the negative correlation between different types of generation, which effectively smoothens out intermittencies that have become prevalent with the increasing uptake of non-dispatchable generation such as wind turbine and solar PV generation. This paper presents the findings of temporal, spatial, and spatio-temporal complementarity studies conducted for New Zealand. The study utilizes 5 years’ worth of hourly observational data from local meteorological services and real power outputs of selected operating wind farms. The typical data pre-processing steps were applied after which Spearman’s Rank Correlation, Cross-correlation, and Canonical Correlation techniques were applied to the modelled power data and derived datasets to determine complementarity. Previous correlation studies published in New Zealand have not presented findings on wind-solar complementarity until recently. With the predicted uptake of these intermittent energy sources in multiple regions, this paper can provide a baseline for generation complementarity in New Zealand.