Grid Integration of Wind Energy in Germany- Towards Managing 25 GW Offshore Wind Power

www.enbw.com This work gives an overview how 16 GW of wind power is currently integrated into the German energy supply system. The focus of the presentation lies on reporting practical experiences concerning the use of wind energy in Germany within the framework of the recently adapted renewable energy act and the newly introduced immediate exchange of wind power between the four German grid control areas. Possible concepts of balancing the differences between predicted and actual wind power generation under the new framework are discussed. As one major side-effect of the exchange of wind power the demand for monitoring the current energy production of wind farms and for short-term predictions of wind power has significantly increased and opened a broader market for these services. As plans for going offshore are ambitious (25 GW in 2030) wind energy has to be effectively integrated into the German electricity system. This requires new strategies to manage the anticipated large amounts of offshore wind power. Here the main idea is to regulate wind farms similar to power plants and provide the services comparable to conventional power plants. A heuristic estimate indicates that by 2030 the day-ahead balancing power due to wind energy might increase by a factor 3 to 4 compared to the current status. However, due to the good predictability of wind power for the next few hours the actual regulation power will be significantly smaller