The effect of spatial dispersion of wind power plants on the curtailment of wind power in the Greek power supply system

To meet the national target of 29% for electricity production from renewable energy sources by 2020 in Greece, effective implementation of massive wind power installed capacity into the power supply system is required. In such a situation, the effective absorption of wind energy production is an important issue in a relatively small and weak power system such as that of Greece, which has limited existing interconnections with neighboring countries. The curtailment of wind power is sometimes necessary in autonomous systems with large wind energy penetration. The absorption or curtailment of wind power is strongly affected by the spatial dispersion of wind power installations. In the present paper, a methodology for estimating this effect is presented and applied for the power supply system of Greece. The method is based on probability theory, and makes use of wind forecasting models to represent the wind energy potential over any candidate area for future wind farm installations in the country. Moreover, technical constraints imposed by the power supply system management, the commitment of power plants and the load dispatch strategies are taken into account to maximize the wind energy penetration levels while ensuring reliable operation of the system. Representative wind power development scenarios are studied and evaluated. Results show that the spatial dispersion of wind power plants contributes beneficially to the wind energy penetration levels that can be accepted by the power system. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.