Shared energy storage-assisted and tolerance-based alliance strategy for wind power generators based on cooperative game and resource dependence theories

The variability of wind power will affect the market performance of wind power generators (WPGs) and make them suffer energy deviation settlement. Energy storage, as a controllable resource, is widely used to cope with the problem. However, independent construction of large-scale energy storage will bring high investment costs and risks to WPGs. The sharing of energy storage in the alliance formed by different types of WPGs provides a new solution to the problem, but alliance cooperation and alliance selection are crucial issues that warrant diligent attention by WPGs from the perspective of the cooperative game. Given this background, a shared energy storage (SES)-assisted and tolerance-based alliance strategy based on cooperative game and resource dependence theories is formulated for WPGs. First, a robust-based market profit model of WPGs is developed. On this basis, transaction cost theory is implemented to analyze cooperation costs, and the dual theory-based alliance profit model considering SES is developed. Then, a modified profit allocation approach based on multiple indexes and deviation minimization algorithm (MI-DMA) is innovatively developed to allocate alliance profits. Finally, since the difficulty in meeting the maximum interests of all WPGs within an alliance simultaneously, the tolerance index is proposed to assist WPGs in making concession decisions for cooperation and the tolerance-based alliance strategy is formulated to balance the satisfactions of WPGs and formations of alliances. Compared to the strategies based on non-cooperative games, the proposed strategy based on cooperative games can fully leverage the complementary advantages of each WPG, consider the interests of all WPGs, and foster cooperation and fairness. Simulation results show that WPGs can obtain satisfactory returns by selecting appropriate cooperators under the tolerance-based alliance strategy. It also demonstrates that the proposed MI-DMA-based profit allocation method is more targeted and comprehensive than commonly used cooperative game-based methods.