Existing solutions to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid
Existing solutions to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid
(OP)
Hi folks,
I would like to know about field-proven solutions for integrating wind energy plants with high wind energy penetration.
What advanced technologies today available, which allow to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid? It can be any kind of existing electrical or electro-mechanical solutions applied to the grid or wind turbines.
I am very curious what challenges must be overcome to increase its share in electricity production.
Thanks!
Adam
I would like to know about field-proven solutions for integrating wind energy plants with high wind energy penetration.
What advanced technologies today available, which allow to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid? It can be any kind of existing electrical or electro-mechanical solutions applied to the grid or wind turbines.
I am very curious what challenges must be overcome to increase its share in electricity production.
Thanks!
Adam






RE: Existing solutions to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid
Challenge: Under voltage and frequency ride through on wind farms.
Challenge: Dynamic var generation.
Challenge: storage of off peak wind generation, or match generation cost with that of generation demand.
Challenge: End-of-life disposal of wind assets, that include tower, and base.
Challenge: Step-up transformer fire plan, to prevent large scale property burns.
Do you need more?
RE: Existing solutions to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid
RE: Existing solutions to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid
P.S. My purpose is to learn about renewable energy system. I have a knowledge in energy system and its components, but it's quite different when you combine all together, RE and conventional energy. Could you also provide any source where I can get additional information?
Thank you for your time.
RE: Existing solutions to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid
Ireland is a relatively unusual case in that it has very high levels of instantaneous wind power penetration (often > 50 % of system demand) on an AC power system with only relatively small HVDC connections to the rest of Europe. However, some of the challenges and possible solutions may be applicable to islanded power systems with very high levels of wind power, as well as to better-interconnected power systems (at transmission level) where there may still be a lot of smaller wind farms (and other distributed/embedded generation) connected to the distribution system.
Hope this helps!
IP
RE: Existing solutions to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid
The dynamic var issue is a common issue with all generation sources.
The end of life issue is important because there seems to be little incentive to repower old wind farms, unless the space is of a premium. In fact other industries are required to set up a fund for disposal cost.
The fire issue in the west is a big issue, and may lead to increased maintenance for exclusion of weed growth around step-up transformers.
RE: Existing solutions to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid
RE: Existing solutions to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid
The cost associated with needing spinning reserves on hand really isn't that much. It is less than a cent per kwh. I will try to find something that shows this but I have seen the numbers.
Ironically, the greater the penetration ,the more wind generation that you have over a larger area, the easier it is to forecast and plan for. Predicting the average wind speed at Amarillo is a lot harder than the average wind speed across the state.
RE: Existing solutions to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid
As I said a bad example because that 110MW was about 20% of the companies summer peak, and it happened on a Winter night. Yes it was extreme for that company, but that was a real condition.
That cent per kwh would be on top of what is paid for the wind energy.
My point is that many wind farms don't address those issues, or even admit they exist.
Another issue is the voltage profile from changing power and var production levels. This makes the host utility maintenance of voltage regulating equipment increase, along with the associated costs.
Wind companies are like the bad neighbor (with a big dog) that don't maintain their fences. The damage done is not seen as their problem. (and is why some of us in the utility business don't like wind power).
Also the wind industry won't share their equipment models with utility people.
RE: Existing solutions to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYsPrYLcan0&fe...
If you prefer not to watch the video, the site is the Rubart Station for Mid-Kansas Electric, a google search provides more info.
MikeL.
RE: Existing solutions to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid
That's the big issue with SPP's vision of 1 GW of wind in that area of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. The utilities don't have the resources to counter-balance the wind power that is intended to be exported, let alone the transmission resources. Most of what was built was to serve the customers, and not much more.
Strange we go back to IC engines for speed.
RE: Existing solutions to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid
"Wind companies are like the bad neighbor (with a big dog) that don't maintain their fences. The damage done is not seen as their problem. (and is why some of us in the utility business don't like wind power).
Also the wind industry won't share their equipment models with utility people."
I don't know where you are from but I believe this is all shared, in ERCOT at least. The people who do the dynamical studies at the utility I am with use VSAT and they get the modeling of the turbines from the customer who get it from the manufacture. I have seen interconnection studies carried out by third parties for SPP that include the turbine information for determining need and sizing an SVCs. For short circuit stuff I have done, I have been given the entire wind farm design drawings or an ASPEN model of their entire collector station.
RE: Existing solutions to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid
Also not all of the transmission planners, who are the ones that talk with the wind developers, communicate with the protection people very much about the type of units.
It leaves the protection people to guess what type of equipment is attached to their systems.
The planners also did not know about the capacitor switching off on low voltage, which made fault recovery somewhat slow (what a shock the planners had).
Always ask about how the var support switching orders.
I now work with younger planning engineers (at a different company) who communicate much better, but lack some years. So things are getting better.
RE: Existing solutions to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid
The good news is that there is available power electronic based technology to solve or mitigate some of the new challengers with the win penetration.
There is indication that the wind penetration in the US energy market is a fact that we need to be prepared to address
We can choose to be opposed to the new challenger with renewable power or add new knowledge to address the new challengers in the power industry.
RE: Existing solutions to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid
Yes ignore the problems, and it is almost perfect enough to throw money at it.
If you look at the present grid with no wind, then the present grid with 100% wind, and knowing the optimal amount is somewhere in between. What is the difference?
What is the point where the grid must change to work with more wind, and why should not the wind developers be paying for those changes? And is it really good to pass those costs to the utility customers?
Besides as you add more wind power, does that not slow down the wind? And if it slows down the wind, is that not causing climate change?
RE: Existing solutions to minimize the negative impact of wind power plants on the grid