Accommodating wind's natural behavior

Abstract

Integration of wind-power plants into the electric power system presents challenges to power-system planners and operators. These challenges stem primarily from the natural characteristics of wind plants, which differ in some respects from conventional plants. Wind plants operate when the wind blows, and their power levels vary with the strength of the wind. Hence, they are not dispatchable in the traditional sense, which lessens the ability of system operators to control them while maintaining the system's balance between load and generation.