Integrating wind turbines into the Orcas Island distribution system

This research effort consists of two years of wind data collection and analysis to investigate the possibility of strategically locating a megawatt (MW) scale wind farm near the end of an Orcas Power and light Company (OPALCO) 25-kilovolt (kV) distribution circuit to defer the need to upgrade the line to 69 kV. The results of this study support the results of previous work in which another year of wind data and collection was performed. Both this study and the previous study show that adding a MW-scale wind farm at the Mt. Constitution site is a feasible alternative to upgrading the OPALCO 25-kV distribution circuit to 69 kV