ASSESSMENT OF THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF WIND GENERATED POWER TO ELECTRIC UTILITIES

An economic evaluation of wind power in a utility context is attempted. The potential advantages to the utility evolving out of wind farm site dispersal are investigated during the analysis. In general terms, arrays of wind farms produce some firm capacity because of the diversity of wind at the dispersed sites. In general, arrays of multiple sites tend to fill up the low power output levels of an individual site during the day. Two separate models, an individual site model and a dispersed site model, are considered for integration with a typical U.S. electric utility. Capacity credit earned for each case is investigated in detail using a reliability model. Wind power is also examined from the standpoint of competition with conventional expansion plants. The economics of wind power in terms of capacity and operating cost savings is analyzed. It is found that the dispersed wind model yields a greater capacity credit because of its ability to displace a base-load unit.