Integrating Wind Energy in a Caribbean Island: A Case Study of Anguilla

This paper describes the analytical and modelling methods employed in a Wind Resource Assessment (WRA) and reliability assessment of a Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS) for small island networks. A case study of the Caribbean island of Anguilla has been conducted. A detailed wind regime revealed a mean wind speed of 7.9 ms(-1) for extrapolated heights 55 m and higher. Both analytical and modelling techniques technically justified the WECS with an annual production in excess of 5 GWh using appropriate turbines to satisfy the monthly energy generation profiles for Anguilla. The reliability assessment incorporated Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) for outages of the generating units yielding the healthy, marginal and risk state probabilities. The system exhibited probabilities of health >= 0.999, while the LOLP <= 0.0005. The Falcon (1.25 MW) wind turbine yielded the best technical performance while the Unison U57 (0.75 MW) wind turbine was deemed suitable satisfying critical aesthetic requirements. An initial economic appraisal is also presented.