Reliability Analysis of the ongoing 10MW Electricity Generation from Wind in Katsina State, Nigeria

Abstract

Wind potential assessment for any location is an essential and primary task in any power generation study. The amount of energy produced by a turbine depends on the characteristics of both wind speed at the site under investigation and the turbines power performance curve. Improper sitting for installation of the wind turbines results in loss of huge amount of money. This work investigates the reliability potential of the ongoing 10MW electricity generation from wind in Lambar Rimi, Katsina. The project consists of 37 wind turbines with rated power of 275kW each. Five year period (2006-2010) data for wind speed at 10m height was analysed. The average wind speed and the Weibull parameters at 10m height were extrapolated to the hub height of 55m. Seven models for the power performance curve between cut in to rated speed were compared with the manufacturer’s data. The expected power output of the turbine was determined by combining wind characteristics of the location and the power outputcharacteristics of the turbine using numerical methods. The results show that each turbine is expected to generate energy of about instead of rated energy of . Monthly capacity factor for the turbine ranges from 0.10 to 0.23. This indicates that if the 10MW project is completed, it will be reliably operating in the range of 1MW to 2.3MW power plant on average which indicates that the turbine-site matching is very low.