A Static Analysis Method to Determine the Availability of Kinetic Energy from Wind Turbines

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Dr. Barry Rawn, TU Delft
• Tuesday 29 June 2010, 11:00-12:00
• Level 11, Seminar room 1109a.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Jeffrey Bloemink.

Wind turbines and farms are expected to be a significant fraction of installed generation capacity in the future, and their current fraction is increasing rapidly. In addition to supplying energy to the power system, wind farms are also required to provide ancillary services such as voltage control, and even the regulation of active power to support the frequency of the power system. One important aspect of power system frequency stability that is not usually classified as an ancillary service is the inertial response of generating units to changes in frequency. In an inertial response to a sudden loss of generation, for example, synchronous generators are physically forced to inject energy into the power grid. Typical converter controls make the a wind turbine appear as a negative resistance in the network with no frequency dependence, but many alterations to converter controls have been proposed in the literature to cause the injection of rotational kinetic energy into the grid during a frequency event. This can come at the expense of operating the turbine away from the optimal point, which results in a reduced capture of energy.

In small power systems found on islands, concerns over frequency stability during contingencies could result on limits to the percentage of installed wind power capacity. It has been proposed in the literature to include frequency-related constraints in market dispatch algorithms, and derive a price signal for providing inertial reserve. If a market for kinetic energy were established, this could represent another stream of revenue for wind farm operators. Another scenario is that system operators will mandate the provision of inertial response from all generators. Therefore, it will become important to characterize the capability of inertial response in wind farms in order to exploit the potential of wind farms fully, and to foster further development of wind farms.

In this talk, some basic concepts and assumptions will be outlined regarding the kinetic energy reserve available from wind turbines, and how this reserve differs from that supplied by synchronous machines. This will enable us to consider recent results, and discuss them. The results include an evaluation of the tradeoff between selling energy and selling services, and an assessment of the aggregate technical potential of all wind farms in the Netherlands.

This talk is part of the Wind Farms series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Level 11, Seminar room 1109a
• Wind Farms

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.