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The Capacity Value of Wind Farms
Steven Stoft, July 1, 2008
Conclusions
Wind power has capacity value. A single wind plant in isolation will not produce power all the time, and its capacity value, in isolation, depends on its correlation to load. Often it is believed to have little value for capacity. However, because it is very small compared with load, if it is uncorrelated with load, it will have a capacity value equal to its average power output. Our analysis concretely demonstrates that the combined generation from multiple independent plants can offer significant capacity value, even though characteristics of the individual plants include times of zero output. Furthermore this analysis strongly suggests that the unit’s capacity value should be defined in terms of the average output, and not the nameplate rating.
As total wind-power output increases relative to system load, the marginal contribution of wind power to system capacity decreases. But as the outputs from the mix of wind turbines becomes less correlated, their contribution to system capacity increases.
These results suggest several conclusions. There is considerable benefit to keeping wind generation widely separated to minimize correlations of power production between wind farms. Reducing transmission congestion to integrate more wind-producing regions will reduce correlation and increase the capacity value of wind. Market rules that allow wind to be treated as a regional resource rather than a local resource will also increase its capacity value provided the necessary transmission is available.
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http://stoft.com/p/45.html | 10/12/08 10:38 GMT
Modified: Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:19:18 GMT
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