Optimal wind energy penetration in power systems: An approach based on spatial distribution of wind speed

Contributing in power system expansions, the present study establishes an efficient scheme for optimal integration of wind energy resources. The proposed approach highly concerns the spatial distribution of wind speed at different points of a wind farm. In mathematical statements, a suitable probability distribution function (PDF) is well-designed for representing such uncertainties. In such conditions, it is likely to have dissimilar output powers for individual and identical wind turbines. Thus, the overall aggregated PDF of a wind farm remarkably influences the critical parameters including the expected power and energy, capacity factor, and the reliability metrics such as loss of load expectation (LOLE) and expected energy not supplied (EENS). Furthermore, the proposed approach is deployed for optimal allocation of wind energy in bulk power systems. Hence, two typical test systems are numerically analyzed to interrogate the performance of the proposed approach. The conducted survey discloses an over/underestimation of harvestable wind energy in the case of overlooking spatial distributions. Thus, inaccurate amounts of wind farm's capacity factor, output power, energy and reliability indices might be estimated. Meanwhile, the number of wind turbines may be misjudged to be installed. However, the proposed approach yields in a fair judgment regarding the overall performance of the wind farm. Consequently, a reliable penetration level of wind energy to the power system is assured. Extra discussions are provided to deeply assess the promising merits of the founded approach. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.