Spatial Distribution of Wind Power Plants To Reduce Variability of Renewable Energy Generation

• Author / Creator

  Debnath, Dhrupad

• As the penetration of wind power into generation mix increases, the issue of its integration into the power grid becomes more and more important. The variability of wind power generation is a major concern as wind is highly intermittent. This may result in significant overproduction at times, followed by complete unavailability of wind power at other periods. This intermittency must be compensated for by other, conventional generation sources such as coal and gas fired power plants. This reduces the overall efficiency of the system, due to the need to run some generators as spinning reserves, and lowers the overall contribution of renewable generation to the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.
  This thesis examines the possibility to optimize the spatial distribution of wind power plants over an extended area to decrease the overall variability of wind power generation in a system. A power exchange simulation model was developed to analyze the impacts of different realistic parameters of renewable resources on micro grids exchanging power among themselves and the national grid. The thesis then considers the integration of spatially distributed wind power generation in the wind-rich province of Alberta, Canada. The thesis is then extended to integrate the wind resources of Alberta and British Columbia together. The distribution of power plants is optimized using simulated annealing and quadratic programming. The results clearly show that the variability of wind power generation can be reduced if the wind resources are integrated over a wide geographic area. In this way, a steady average of wind power generation is possible that can reduce the base load requirements and spinning reserves which are necessary for integrating intermittent renewable wind power generation into the grid.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Steady Average Wind Power
  • Spatial Distribution
  • Reduce Variability
  • Wind Power Generation
  • Renewable Energy
  • Simulated Annealing

• Graduation date

  Fall 2014

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R39D49

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.