Impact of Wind Speed Variability on the Economics of Wind Power Generation Considering the Curtailment

摘要

Like other renewable energy sources, it is unavoidable that the amount of Wind Power Generation (WPG) is greatly affected by weather conditions, particularly by wind speed. Additionally, the curtailment of WPG is likely to occur due to the increase in WPG over customer demand. However, it has not been sufficiently addressed from the perspective of economics what happens if the wind speed and the curtailment limit the WPG. Thus, in this study, the impact of wind speed variability on the economics of WPG is quantitatively analyzed considering the curtailment of WPG. For this purpose, the concepts of Effective Capacity Factor (ECF) and excess capacity of WPG are defined and used as practical metrics for evaluating the economics of WPG considering the curtailment. Further, it is examined how much the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) can reduce the curtailment and improve the economics of WPG. The simulations are performed with the selected data on the wind speed distribution, wind turbine, and customer demand. The simulation results show that the increase in the wind speed variability deteriorates the economics of WPG by increasing the curtailment of WPG and the BESS may improve the economics by reducing the curtailment.