Transmission connected wind curtailment with increasing wind capacity connection

Paper presented at IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting, July 26-30, 2009, Calgary, CanadaMany countries have ambitious plans to increase wind energy penetration levels in the near future. With a low capacity factor and even lower capacity credit, wind power is a fundamentally different power generation source than conventional plant. Traditional planning methodologies focusing solely on the impact of turbine capacity’s impact on line flow worst-case scenarios may unnecessarily impede cost-effective wind integration. This paper assesses the impact of increased wind capacity connection on wind energy curtailment indices using a security-contrained optimal power flow model. Results indicate significant scope for increased wind capacity connection exists if small levels of wind energy curtailment are accepted.Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and TechnologyCharles Parsons Energy Research AwardsCharles Parson pe, la, sp, ke, ab - kpw28/10/1