Wind power systems

Course 3
Wind Power in Power Systems
1. Network integration issues for wind power
Significant penetration levels of WP not only
is possible but also often does not require a
major redesign of the existing power system.
The main aim of a power system is to supply
network consumers with electricity whenever
the consumers have a demand for it.
The challenges are the fluctuating nature of
wind and the new generator types (doubly
fed induction generator, not used in
traditional power systems).




The basic challenge regarding the network
integration of wind power consists of the
following two aspects:
1. how to keep an acceptable voltage level for
all consumers of the power system.
2. how to keep the power balance of the
system.

Loads, transmission lines and transformers can
be represented with impedances, Z, when
analysing power systems.



With voltages (RMS values of the line-to-line
voltages) on each side of the impedance, and
the current (RMS value of the phase current),
the voltage drop over the impedance can be
calculated as:



Figure 3.3.shows the basic problem of the grid
connection of a wind farm. At the point of
connection of the wind farm, there is also a
local load.

IZ U U 3
2 1
=
(1)
The shortcicuit power, Sk, in the wind power
connection point can be calculated as:


Where Zk is the shortcircuit impedance, as
seen from the ponit of connection of the wind
farm.
Changes in the wind power production will
cause changes in the current through the
impedance Z. The current changes cause
changes in the voltage U2. If Z is large (in a
weak grid Sk is small) there is not as much
room for wind power as there is in a situation
where Z is small (in a strong grid, Sk is large).
K
k
Z
U
S
2
2
=
(2)
The voltage U
2
can be calculated as:



where


Eq. 3 shows that the reactive power production in
the wind farm Q
W
has an impact on the voltage
U
2
. The impact is dependant on the local load
and the feeding grid impedance.



( ) ,
3
2
2
2
2
1
2
1
2
2
2
1
2
1 1
2
1 1
2

+
|
|
.
|

\
|
+

= a a
U a U a
U (3)
( ) ( )
( ) ( ).
,
2
1
LD W LD W
LD W LD W
Q Q R P P X a
Q Q X P P R a
+ =
=
An asynchronous generator consumes reactive
power and the amount is not controllable. The
reactive consumption is partially compensated
with shunt capacitors (so called phase
compensation).
In synchronous generators (but not with
permanent magnets), and in converters, it is
possible to control the reactive generation or
consumption. This makes it possible to control
the voltage, as seen in eq. 3.
Characteristics of wind power generation
The wind speed varies continuously as function of
time and height.

The turbulent peak is caused mainly by gusts, in the
subsecond to minute range.
The diurnal peak depends on daily wind speed
variations (e.g. land-sea breezes caused by different
temperatures on the land and sea).
The synoptic peak depends on changing weather
pattern, which typically varies daily to weekly, but
include also seasonal cycles.
From a power system perspective, the turbulent peak
may affect the quality of the wind power production.
The impact of turbulences depend on the turbine
technology applied. Variable speed WT, may absorb
short term power variations by the immediate storage
of energy in the rotating masses of the WT drive train.
Diurnal and synoptic peaks may affect the
long-term balancing of the power system. Wind
speed forecasts play a significant role for the
long-term balancing of power system.
Another important issue is the long-term
variation of the wind resources. Based on
studies, it has been estimated that the variation
of the yearly mean power output from one 20-
year period to the next has a standard deviation
of 10% or less. Hence, over the lifetime of a
WT, the uncertainty of the resource wind is not
large, which is an important factor for the
economic evaluation of a WT.
Wind power production

The WT usually reaches rated capacity at a
wind speed of between 12-16 m/s, depending
on the design of the individual WT.
Cut-in wind speed- the speed at which the WT
starts to operate.
At wind speeds higher then the rated wind
speed, the maximum power production will be
limited, or in other words, some parts of the
available energy of the wind will be spilled.
The power output regulation can be achieved
with pitch control or with stall control (the
aerodynamic design of the rotor blade will
regulate the power of the WT).
Hence, a WT produces maximum power within
a certain wind interval, that has its upper limit at
the cut-out wind speed. The cut-out wind speed
is the speed where the wind turbine stops
production and turns out of the main wind
direction (typically values 20-25m/s).
! The power curve of a wind farm is not
automatically made up of the scaled-up power
curve of the turbines of this wind farm, owing to
the shadowing effect between the turbines (if
WTs in the first row of the turbines that directly
face the main wind direction experience 15m/s,
the last row gets only 10m/s WT in the first
row will operate at rated capacity, whereas the
last row will operate at less power).
If the speed exceeds the cut-out speed, the turbine
shuts down and stops producing energy. When the
wind drops below cut-out wind speed, the turbines will
not immediately start operating again, usually requires
adrop of the wind speed of 3 to 4 m/s (hysteresis
loop).
For the power system, the production stop of a
significant amount of wind power may result in a
comparatively sudden loss of a significant amount of
wind power. For power systems with large wind farms
installed in a small geographic area, a storm may lead
to the loss of power in a period of time less then 1
hour.
To reduce the impact of such a shutdown, some wind
manufacturers offer WT with power curves which,
instead of a sudden cut out, reduce the power
production step by step with the increasing wind
speed.


Impact of aggregation of wind power production
The aggregation of wind power provides an important positive
effect on the power system operation and power quality.

The positive effect of wind power aggregation
on power system operation has two aspects:
1.an increased number of WT within a wind farm,
2.the distribution of wind farms over a wider
geographic area.

1. An increased number of WT reduces the impact of
the turbulent peak as gusts do not hit all the WT at
the same time( the percentage variation of the
power output will drop as n
-1/2
, n-number of WT).
2. A wider geographical distribution reduces the
impact of the diurnal and synoptic peak significantly
as changing weather patterns do not affect all wind
turbines at the same time.

Capacity factor
The total installed capacity (IC) is assumed to be
C
IC
.
The mean power production of all units is Pm.
The capacity factor CF is the ratio P
m
/C
IC
.
- The capacity factor depends on the wind
resources at the location and the type of WT,
but lies often in the range of about 0.25 (low
wind speed locations) to 0.4 (high wind speed
locations). This value lies, then, in the range of
2200-3500 hours/year.
- The yearly energy production W can be
calculated as
W = P
m
x 8760=C
IC
x 8760xCF=C
IC
x t
util

Basic integration issues related to wind power

P
D
-power consumed by industries and house
holds,
P
W
- power delivered by the wind power station
P
G
- additional power, produced at another
location,
Z1-Z3- impedances in the transmission lines and
transformers between the different components
P
L
-power losses because of the impedances Z1-
Z3.
The power balance:

W L D G
P P P P + =
(4)
Consumer requirements
As the main aim of a power system is to supply
consumers with the required electricity at any
given time at a reasonable cost, from the
consumers perspective, three main
requirements can be defined:
CR1. the voltage level at the connection point has
to stay within acceptable range (e.g. 230 V10%),
CR2. the power should be available at exactly the
time the consumers need it.
CR3. the consumed power should be available at
a reasonable cost.
Requirements from the wind farm operators
Wind farm owners or operators have certain demands
on the existing power system in order to be able to sell
the wind power production:
WP1: Wind farms require a certain voltage level at the
connection point (nominal voltage 10%); for wind
farms the requirements can sometimes be softened
since WF can be designed to handle different quality
levels.
WP2: wind farm owners want to be able to sell their wind
power production to the grid when wind power
production is possible (when the wind speed is
sufficient) otherwise the production has to be spilled.
WP3: WP1 and WP2 also concern the reliability of the
power system at the connection point of the wind farm.
The higher the reliability, the higher the costs.
The integration issue
CR1: voltage level at the connection point of the consumer

Case 1: no P
W
is installed in the power system (fig. 3.9) and U
0
is
kept constant by P
G
. If P
D
varies, I
1
and I
3
varies and there will
be a voltage drop across Z
1
and Z
3
. If Z
1
and Z
3
are large (the
case of long lines or a comparatively low voltage), voltage U
3

will vary substantially when P
D
varies. Possible measures to
avoid large voltage variations in U
3
are as follows:
a) use a stronger grid (Z
1
and Z
3
are small), accomplished
by higher voltages in the line and transformers that are not too
small;
b) Controllable transformers close to U
3
(to control the
voltage);
c) Control voltage U1 by using controllable transformers
and/or voltage controlling equipment (shunt capacitors or
reactors).



Case 2: P
W
is installed in the power system. As P
W
varies ,
current I
2
varies. Since I
1
will vary, U
1
will vary and also
possible U
3
. The impact of the wind power variations on U
3

depend mainly on the size of Z
1
. If Z
1
is very small, U
3
will be
more or less independent of Pw variation. In reality, only
consumers that are rather close to wind farms may be affected
by variations in wind power production. To avoid problems for
these consumers, measures a)-c) plus
d) use local control of voltage U
2
at the wind farm. Depending
on the wind turbine technology, the voltage control of U
2
can be
performed by the wind farm.

WP1: voltage level at the connection point of the wind farm

The voltage U
2
will depend on Pw, P
D
and the size of Z
1
and Z
2
.
Now the size of Z
2
is important (this is mainly of interest when
wind power is located at a larger distance from the consumer).
Measures a), b) and d) are of a certain interest plus
e) Controllable transformer close to U
2
.

CR2: power availability on demand

Case 1: no P
W
is installed in the power system
When consumers increase their consumption, the power will be
delivered directly from the conventional power plant.

-generally use synchronous generators,
P
T
is the power delivered by the turbine,
P
S
is the power delivered from the kinetic energy
stored in the rotating mass consisting of turbine,
shaft and rotor. During normal operation Ps is
zero.
P
G
is the electric power delivered to the power
system.
If the load P
D
increases, P
G
will directly increase.
!! The initial increase in power production is not
due to an increase in the power production in
the steam or hydro turbine. The increase of P
G

will originate from the stored kinetic energy Ps.
Since the kinetic energy is used, the turbine-shaft-
generator rotational system will slow downrotor
speed of the synchronous generator is strongly
coupled to the power system frequency, a decrease in
the rotor speed will result in a decrease of electric
frequency.
- In order to limit the decrease in power system
frequency, power plants are equipped with primary
controlled system (measures f and adjust P
T
). The
reaction time depends on the power plant, and is 30
seconds to 1 minute (increasing the production few
percentage of the rated capacity).
- secondary control (power plants with a slower
response) will take over the capacity tasks of the
primary control 10 to 30 minutes later and will thereby
free up capacity that is used for primary control.
The requirements of load balancing means that:
a power system must have sufficient primary and secondary
control capacity available in order to respond to changes in
demand;
These power plants must always have sufficient reserve to
increase the power production to the level required.

Case 2 Wind power P
W
is added in the power system. There will
be additional fluctuating source in the power system. The
primary and secondary control system will operate in exactly
the same way as described above. Plus, if wind power
decreases, this has exactly the same effect on the system as
an increase in demand more variations that have to be
balanced.
!!! Experience from Europe shows that even very high wind power
penetration levels (up to 20%), may not require additional
primary control if the installed wind power capacity is
geographically distributed over a wide area.
However, because of the current limitations in
wind speed forecast technologies, any
mismatch between forecasted wind power
production and the actual one, has eventually to
be handled by the secondary control capacity
the requirements for secondary control
capacity are influenced by the wind power
penetration level.

CR3:economical power supply
Case 1: no wind power connected
- Power system design must analyse the costs
and benefits of a certain reliability level.




-there is no 100% reliability power system.
Two issues have to be taken into account:
1. Power system must have sufficient P
G
to meet
P
D
+P
L
.If reliability is 99.9999% (it means that
1 hour within one year there is no sufficient
installed capacity), then for 100% we have to
build a new power plant just for 1 hour/year.
2. There must be sufficient grid capacity to
transmit the power from G to consumers.
Redundancy is required (redundant
transmission lines and back up power plants).


WP3: Power system reliability
Pw modifies the economic trade-off between reliability
costs and consumers costs for insufficient reliability.
1. One issue is related to the capacity margin in a
given power system (covering the peak load). If Pw
is added, reliability will increase as there is a certain
probability that there will be a certain amount of WP
production when peak load. In addition, more WP
capacity may decrease other types of power plants
without reducing system reliability.
2. Power system reliability might be affected by the
introduction of WP(the influence on the stability in
case of fault).
3. Needs more balancing equipment to keep a certain
reliability level.

4. When installing a WF, discuss the
dimensioning of the transmission system
between the wind farm and the rest of the grid.
Do we incorporate redundant transmission
system? The power quality level U2 at the
connection point needs voltage regulation
equipment. The extreme cases are Pwmax+
PDmin and Pw=0+PDmax. Then how are we
going to design the voltage control?