Kara Clark
Principal GE’s Energy Applications and System Engineering
Kara Clark is a Principal in GE’s Energy Applications and System Engineering group, which provides engineering expertise in the analysis of large-scale power systems. Ms. Clark’s current focus is on the control of wind-turbine generators and wind plants, modeling for both cycle-by-cycle and fundamental frequency analysis, and analyzing the impact of significant levels of wind and solar generation on power system performance. She was a principal contributor to the New York, California, and Western Wind and Solar integration studies, and a member of the GE team receiving the 2007 American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) Technical Achievement Award and the 2010 Utility Wind Industry Group (UWIG) Achievement Award. She is a senior member of IEEE, author of many technical papers, and a registered Professional Engineer in New York.
Integrating High Penetrations of Wind and Solar Energy
The Western Wind and Solar Integration Study is one of the largest regional wind and solar integration studies to date, examining the operational impact of supplying up to 35% annual energy from wind, photovoltaic, and concentrating solar resources in the WestConnect region of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming. This presentation reviews the scope of the study, the development of wind and solar datasets, and the key findings for three study scenarios. It discusses changes to grid operation practices and market structures that would enable the integration of high penetration wind and solar energy, as well as a summary of the lessons learned from this and a series of similar studies performed for different regions of North America – including NY State and New England.