Analysis of North Sea Offshore Wind Power Variability

Aymeric Buatois,Madeleine Gibescu,Mart Van Der Meijden,Barry Rawn

doi:10.3390/resources3020454

Aymeric Buatois, Madeleine Gibescu + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/resources3020454

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Abstract

This paper evaluates, for a 2030 scenario, the impact on onshore power systems in terms of the variability of the power generated by 81 GW of offshore wind farms installed in the North Sea. Meso-scale reanalysis data are used as input for computing the hourly power production for offshore wind farms, and this total production is analyzed to identify the largest aggregated hourly power variations. Based on publicly available information, a simplified representation of the coastal power grid is built for the countries bordering the North Sea. Wind farms less than 60 km from shore are connected radially to the mainland, while the rest are connected to a hypothetical offshore HVDC (High-Voltage Direct Current) power grid, designed such that wind curtailment does not exceed 1% of production. Loads and conventional power plants by technology and associated cost curves are computed for the various national power systems, based on 2030 projections. Using the MATLAB-based MATPOWER toolbox, the hourly optimal power flow for this regional hybrid AC/DC grid is computed for high, low and medium years from the meso-scale database. The largest net load variations are evaluated per market area and related to the extra load-following reserves that may be needed from conventional generators.

Highlights

The European Union has set ambitious targets regarding the percentage of electricity consumption to be served by renewable energy sources by 2020
The influence of the DC offshore grid is determined by looking at the power variations seen by each synchronous area over intervals of one to four hours
The power variation is evaluated by subtracting from the native load the sum of the power injected into the DC grid in each area

Summary

Introduction

The European Union has set ambitious targets regarding the percentage of electricity consumption to be served by renewable energy sources by 2020. Large-scale renewable sources may be located far from load centers This is true of (offshore) wind power plants with high capacity factors. An example of this international cooperation is the North Sea Offshore Grid, as proposed in [1,2,3] It implies that the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Great Britain and Belgium will work together on the creation of an offshore grid to efficiently harvest the wind energy resources available in the North Sea and transport it to shore. This requires massive investments and a complex coordinated planning exercise among the North Sea states [3]. To integrate large-scale offshore wind, the transmission networks of all coastal states have to be expanded both offshore and onshore [3,5]

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