Danish wind industry may need a new balancing act

摘要

Today, wind energy supplies 22% of end-user electricity in Denmark. The Danish government has recently decided it wants to double that figure by 2025. How will that be managed, and how will the balancing problems it brings be solved? The author provides a TSO perspective. Experience to date suggests that the 'Danish wind case' (i.e. a justification of the high proportion of wind power in the mix) could never be made without strong interconnections to the hydropower based Nordic system and to the European continental mainland. Depending on weather conditions the total output of all the country's wind power plants can vary between zero and 3100 MW, swinging from limit to limit in only few hours. This variability and unpredictability is a major challenge for the national transmission system operator Energinet.dk. According to Kim Behnke, head of R&D, Energinet.dk, more than half of imbalance events have their origin in wind power, and failures in wind forecasting increase the imbalances in the power system in approximately 70% of all one hour slots.