MW Wind Power Plant Research Articles

Grid impact analysis on wind power plant interconnection in strengthening electricity systems

The Timor system is one of the large systems in the East Nusa Tenggara region. Based on the general plan for electricity supply for 2021-2030, there is a plan to interconnect a 2x11 MW wind power plant. The addition of wind power plants will pose a considerable threat to the system due to the intermittency nature of renewable energy plants. Therefore, a comprehensive grid impact study is needed to convince network managers that adding wind farms will not cause disruptions to the system either locally or in general and is expected to strengthen the electricity system. The power flow simulation results, installing a 2x11 MW wind farm on the Timor system can improve voltage quality and reduce losses on both 70 and 150 kV systems. For transient stability, the frequency value on the Timor system still meets the grid code requirements. In addition, the simulation results of the intermittency impact of the wind power plant output show that the Timor system is still in a stable condition. The stability of the rotor angle of the existing power plant when the transient stability simulation is carried out shows that it is still in a balanced condition.

Active filter parameter tuning method for harmonic voltage mitigation in wind power plants

It is challenging to determine the active filter control factors in wind power plants (WPP) to obtain effective harmonic voltage mitigation and avoid over-modulation or system instability problems caused by overlarge feedforward or feedback gains. To address this issue, an active filter tuning (AFT) method is proposed in this paper to offer a common parameter tuning and stability assessment strategy for both current-controlled and voltage-controlled harmonic impedance reshaping (HIR) methods by introducing a coordination factor including different weight coefficients for system stability margin, wind turbine (WT) harmonic suppression, and grid harmonic mitigation. The superiority of the proposed method is verified in a 20 MW WPP with four cases considering both WT harmonic voltage amplification and grid voltage amplification. Compared to previous methods, the AFT-based HIR method achieves a more flexible balance between system stability and harmonic voltage mitigation, obtaining better performance in WT harmonic suppression, grid harmonic suppression, system robustness, and transient response.

Optimal Artificial Intelligence Technique for LVRT Capability Improvement of a Grid-tied Wind Energy Conversion System: A MGOANFIS-PI Methodology

This paper proposes an innovative algorithm-based control model for improving the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) system’s low-voltage ride-through (LVRT) capabilities. The Mountain Gazelle optimization (MGO) algorithm is combined with an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS)-based proportional-integral (PI) regulator, called the MGOANFIS-PI approach. In the proposed method, the data set of an MGO-based PI regulator is used after rectification to train the MGOANFIS controller, so updating the ANFIS technique improves MGO’s searching behavior. The implemented control method ensures LVRT capability on grid-tied wind conversion plants based on DFIG in case of a malfunction or a voltage drop. Multiple metrics relating to LVRT are monitored in the proposed system, comprising current, active, and reactive power and voltages. The objective to be achieved, which is resolved through the cascaded MGOANFIS-based PI scheme, is defined. Based on the collected data, ANFIS performs and anticipates the optimal control signal from converters on the rotor and network sides. The MGOANFIS-PI methodology effectively handles system performance and voltage instability during four fault circumstances. The LVRT functionality of the DFIG system and the power quality are enhanced with the assistance of the proposed methodology. Simulations are carried out using MATLAB/Simulink framework. Two test systems are examined: the IEEE 39 bus and the 9 MW wind power plant (WPP) test systems. The WPP’s ability to withstand grid voltage sags is analyzed as part of an effectiveness assessment. The relevance and efficacy of the proposed MGOANFIS-PI method are evaluated, and proved the better performance of the cascaded MGO-based ANFIS-PI controller when compared to PI controllers optimized by comparing it with other well-known optimization techniques, i.e., Gorilla troop optimizer, particle swarm optimization, and genetic algorithm. In the three-phase IEEE 39 bus system and the 9 MW test scheme, detailed wind power plants could persevere in the face of every fault condition.

Noise Emission Assessment of a Utility-Scale Wind Power Plant: Case Study of a 90 MW Wind Power Plant in Mukdaharn Province, Northeastern Thailand

Noise Emission Assessment of a Utility-Scale Wind Power Plant: Case Study of a 90 MW Wind Power Plant in Mukdaharn Province, Northeastern Thailand

Technical-economic evaluation of a 94.5 MW wind power plant at different elevation heights. A case study in Peru's countryside

The scarce promotion of wind energy generation in Peru leads to using fossil fuels and polluting the environment with greenhouse effect gasses. Furthermore, the countryside at height provides some of the areas with great wind resource potential and it has not been exploited yet. This study aims to examine five cases in the Peruvian countryside located at heights ranging from 2400 to 4200 m above sea level to explore the effect of elevation height in energy production and economic indicators. Wind data from the Global Wind Atlas and POWER were used for each area, and a comparative analysis was conducted to assess the accuracy of these datasets. For the economic analysis, break-even Levelized Cost of Energy and Net Present Value were calculated. The findings indicate that the Levelized Cost of Energy was the lowest, ranging between 35 and 39 $/MWh, for elevations between 3000 and 4200 m above sea level. Conversely, the highest costs, ranging from 50 to 79 $/MWh, were observed at lower elevations. This suggests that these high-altitude provinces offer significant wind energy potential, making them suitable for wind farm development.

Environmental Impact Assessment of Onshore Wind Power Plants: A Case Study of a 50 MW Wind Power Plant in Northeastern Thailand

This research aims to assess the environmental feasibility of a wind power plant by investigating its noise disturbances, shadow flicker, and zones of visual influence. The model is applied as a case study for a 50 MW wind power plant, located in the Nakhon Ratchasima province of northeastern Thailand. The acoustic noise emissions were analyzed using the sound propagation and absorption models under the wind conditions on the site studied. The shadow flicker around each wind turbine generator, in terms of the number of hours per year, was also simulated along with the analysis of the zones of visual influence according to the number of wind turbines that can be seen by an observer from a certain distance. The results show a maximum sound level of 47 dBA, within the allowed limits of the 50 dBA legislation of the Department of Pollution Control of the Royal Thai Government. Similarly, the shadow flicker within 1 km of the wind turbines is 10 hours/year, well below the international standard of 30 hours/year. Results of the zones of visual influence indicate that between 15 and 20 turbines are visible from observation points surrounding the potential wind power plant. The results applied to this case study suggest that the potential wind power plant is well-suited regarding its environmental impacts and should typically not incur negative impacts for the local communities. Studies like these are vital to gaining the trust of the communities living near wind power plants to address their concerns and minimize opposition.

Profitability Model of Green Hydrogen Production on an Existing Wind Power Plant Location

This paper presents a new economic profitability model for a power-to-gas plant producing green hydrogen at the site of an existing wind power plant injected into the gas grid. The model is based on a 42 MW wind power plant, for which an optimal electrolyzer of 10 MW was calculated based on the 2500 equivalent full load hours per year and the projection of electricity prices. The model is calculated on an hourly level for all variables of the 25 years of the model. With the calculated breakeven electricity price of 74.23 EUR/MWh and the price of green hydrogen production of 99.44 EUR/MWh in 2045, the wind power plant would produce 22,410 MWh of green hydrogen from 31% of its total electricity production. Green hydrogen injected into the gas system would reduce the level of CO2 emissions by 4482 tons. However, with the projected prices of natural gas and electricity, the wind power plant would cover only 20% of the income generated by the electricity delivered to the grid by producing green hydrogen. By calculating different scenarios in the model, the authors concluded that the introduction of a premium subsidy model is necessary to accelerate deployment of electrolyzers at the site of an existing wind power plant in order to increase the wind farm profitability.

Simulation-based post-fault analysis in WECS using DFIG systems under an unbalanced fault scenario

Fault analysis in an integrated Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS) is the highest priority factor to be taken into account for distributed generation (DG). The contribution of renewable energies (like solar and wind) to the power system is increasing continuously. New challenges are being faced while integrating such systems because of the no inertial response provided by renewable resources. So, for a reliable integration further exploration, development, and even new strategies are needed to improve the reliability, power quality, control and protection of renewable energy generation. Disintegration in distributed generation is still a huge question mark on the reliability of modern power systems. Disintegration has many causes and faults are one of them, that cause severe voltage profile distortions, which makes WECS a complex system in terms of control and protection of power system. In this work, focus has been paid to the analysis of asymmetrical faults in wind farms and their impacts are evaluated on the overall generation system. A 30 MW wind power plant has been developed in MATLAB to study the faults. Since wind farms are Low Voltage (LV) networks, therefore, fault impedance method (IEC 60909) and the Fort-cue Method have been used for the fault analysis. The fault current response and behaviour of the DG system under asymmetrical fault conditions at different locations in and around the wind farm have been obtained. It is found that fault loop impendence, transformer grounding type, and fault location largely affect the dynamic behaviour of the co-generation system under asymmetrical faults. In this work dynamic behaviour of the wind generation system has been analysed for the different asymmetrical faults induced at different locations of the system. The response of the wind generator has been evaluated based on the different fault simulations considering the sequence component method.

Influence of yaw control on flicker produced by wind turbines

IEC 61400-21-1 describes the procedure for measuring the flicker produced by a wind turbine. This is a complex procedure, as it involves the processing of voltage and current time series recorded in a grid connected wind turbine for its entire operating range. The standard assumes that the flicker produced by a wind turbine is related to wind variations and switching operations. The voltage and current signals recorded in a 2 MW Type III wind turbine located at a 32 MW wind power plant in Spain were used for the study. The work shows that most of the flicker produced by the wind turbine is due to the power consumption of the motor used by the yaw control system to orient the nacelle. These operations generate voltage changes whose amplitude is independent of the generated power. As the generated power increases, so does the number of yaw control operations and thus the flicker emitted. A simple analytical method is proposed to estimate the flicker produced by yaw control operations. The results confirm that incorporation of this strategy into the standard could considerably simplify the current flicker measurement procedure.

Techno-economic assessment of a utility-scale wind power plant in Ghana

Ghana's electricity generation mix does not include utility-scale wind power plants to contribute to its power supply. Thus, the country is yet to harness the potential benefits that wind energy could offer, such as diversification of the energy mix, promoting a low-carbon economy, and increasing power generation capacity. This study evaluated wind turbines suitable for developing wind power plants in Adafoah using multicriteria decision-making methods. After that, RETScreen software was employed to perform and evaluate the techno-economic viability of deploying a 10 MW utility-scale wind power plant for electricity generation. The results showed that wind turbines ranging from 1 MW to 1.5 MW are suitable for the study site. Also, developing a 10 MW wind power plant would generate about 93 GWh of electricity annually with a capacity factor of 22%. The findings also reveal that a feed-in tariff (FiT) lower than US$0.15/kWh is not lucrative for wind power development in Adafoah. Furthermore, without financial incentives, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) from the wind power plant is about US$0.143/kWh. In addition, deploying the wind power plant saves about 33% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions compared to the utility grid. The sensitivity analysis also demonstrates that the project's financial indicators are resilient to capital subsidies, inflation, discount rate, FiT, and wind speed variations. The study's findings suggest that wind energy development in Adafoah and similar locations can improve energy access, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and promote sustainable development. This study's findings are useful to decision-makers, stakeholders, and investors in developing the wind power sector in Ghana.

Environmentally Oriented Analysis of Benefits and Expenditures in the Life Cycle of a Wind Power Plant.

The motivation for this study was the need to extend and supplement the previously conducted research on technical objects in the renewable energy sector with analyses of the environmental impact of the production, operation and post-operational development stages of the wind power plant. The main purpose of the work was to investigate, analyze and assess the ecological effects of a real facility, which is a 2 MW Vestas V90/105 m wind farm, throughout its life cycle. The life cycle assessment analysis of the 2 MW wind power plant was performed using Impact 2002+ modeling. The results are presented for all impact levels and categories. The production stage was characterized by the highest total level of harmful effect. The use of recycling reduces the negative impacts of the life cycle by 6.5%. The investigated technical facility has the greatest negative impact during the production stage, especially in the area of depletion of fossil resources and human health.

Technical-Economic Evaluation of a 94.5 Mw Wind Power Plant in Huancabamba, Piura. A Case Study in Peru

Technical-Economic Evaluation of a 94.5 Mw Wind Power Plant in Huancabamba, Piura. A Case Study in Peru

Social impact assessment of wind power generation. An innovative method for decision making processes

This paper explores the social impact for population in the energy sector combining LCA and SIA (social impact assessment). As case study, a new 66 MW wind power plant under development in the countryside of Southern Sardinia has been considered. The innovative method, based on the analysis of the context, aims to empirically analyze some selected sustainability indicators. The proposed method starts from a detailed analysis of the wind power project, with particular reference to the plant site characteristics, technical features of the wind farm, opinions of the stakeholders, environmental and social impacts and expected economic benefits. The acquired data are validated with a Severity statistical method that identifies the KPIs. The indicators are classified into general categories of damage Human life, Safety guarantee, Social resources, Public participation and analyzed through a combined SIA-LCA method to identify indicators damage weights.This work shows the importance of putting together indicators already explored in the environmental field such as Human health, Ecosystem quality, Resource, Climate Change and as social indicators Renewable Energy with Noise, Visual Impact, Shadow Flichers, the perceptions of the local community.

MODELING PROJECT RISKS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A WIND POWER PLANT PROJECT

The construction of a wind power plant is a complex project that requires many years, during which time all the interested parties are exposed to numerous risks, including some with potentially devastating consequences. In this article, a methodology for modeling project risks in the development of a wind power plant project is presented, taking into account the specific circumstances in the Republic of Croatia. The applied method of risk analysis belongs to the group of probability methods that use Monte Carlo simulation analysis. The identified risks and manner of conducting qualitative and quantitative risk analysis are described in detail. Using the example of the risk analysis of a project for a 20x1 MW wind power plant, the economic criteria for decision making are explained and incorporated in a model. This risk analysis model for the wind power plant projects in the Republic of Croatia is constructed in Microsoft Excel and intended for decision makers and project developers. Although the reference case in the model is wind power plant project in Croatia, it can be adapted to any market whatsoever.

Assessment of the Life Cycle of a Wind and Photovoltaic Power Plant in the Context of Sustainable Development of Energy Systems.

The conversion of kinetic energy from wind and solar radiation into electricity during the operation of wind and photovoltaic power plants causes practically no emissions of chemical compounds that are harmful to the environment. However, the production of their materials and components, as well as their post-use management after the end of their operation, is highly consumptive of energy and materials. For this reason, this article aims to assess the life cycle of a wind and photovoltaic power plant in the context of the sustainable development of energy systems. The objects of the research were two actual technical facilities-a 2 MW wind power plant and a 2 MW photovoltaic power plant, both located in Poland. The analysis of their life cycle was carried out on the basis of the LCA (life-cycle assessment) method, using the ReCiPe 2016 calculation procedure. The impact of the examined renewable energy systems was assessed under 22 impact categories and 3 areas of influence (i.e., human health, ecosystems, and resources), and an analysis was conducted for the results obtained as part of three compartments (i.e., air, water, and soil). The life cycle of the wind power plant was distinguished by a higher total potential negative environmental impact compared to the life cycle of the photovoltaic power plant. The highest levels of potential harmful impacts on the environment in both life cycles were recorded for areas of influence associated with negative impacts on human health. Emissions to the atmosphere accounted for over 90% of all emissions in the lifetimes of both the wind and the photovoltaic power plants. On the basis of the obtained results, guidelines were proposed for pro-ecological changes in the life cycle of materials and elements of the considered technical facilities for renewable energy sources, aimed at better implementation of the main assumptions of contemporary sustainable development (especially in the field of environmental protection).

STATCOM Controller Tuning to Enhance LVRT Capability of Grid-Connected Wind Power Generating Plants

This paper investigates the utilization of a STATCOM to enhance the LVRT capability of wind power plants (WPPs) during grid faults. The STATCOM under investigation is tuned using the Water Cycle Algorithm (WCA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), and a hybrid algorithm of both WCA and PSO. Simulations are conducted in MATLAB programming software, using the SimScape power system toolbox, where two test systems are investigated: a 9 MW WPP and the IEEE 39 bus test system. Performance analysis is done by investigating the ability of the WPPs to ride through grid voltage sags, with the incorporation of the STATCOM, independently tuned using WCA, PSO, and further with the hybrid WCA-PSO algorithm. To confirm the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, simulation results for the three scenarios are compared. Results show that the LVRT capability of the German power system was met for L-G faults, for the 9 MW test system, whereas during LLL-G faults, the WPP only remained online for WCA and WCA-PSO tuned STATCOM. For the IEEE 39 bus system, the WPPs were able to ride through the LLL-G fault. In all scenarios, the WCA-PSO tuned STATCOM resulted in the least voltage, active, and reactive power overshoots.

Wind power generation and appropriate feed-in-tariff under limited wind resource in central Thailand

The objective of this paper is to assess the wind energy resource in the central region of Thailand for wind power generation, along with analyzing the economic feasibility and appropriate feed-in-tariff (FIT) of a proposed 15 MW wind power plant. A microscale wind resource map was created using measured wind data, a computational fluid dynamics wind flow modeling and high-resolution topography databases. Five utility-scale wind turbine generators (WTG), with hub heights ranging from 80 to 120 m above ground level (agl), were used to estimate the annual energy production (AEP). Considering the available wind resource, the most appropriate WTG was identified, and a wind power plant layout was achieved to maximize the AEP as well as minimizing the wake losses. The maximum net AEP, capacity factor (CF), %AEP improvement, %wake loss reduction, and CO2eq emission avoidance were also analyzed. Several financial indices and the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) were analyzed on the basis of a cost–benefit analysis. The economic sensitivity of the costs was used to determine the most appropriate FIT for the project. Results reveal that the mean annual wind speed at 120 m agl in the central region of Thailand reaches 5.8 m/s. The net AEP, CF, %AEP improvement, %wake loss, and CO2eq emission avoidance for a 15 MW wind power plant are estimated at 41 GWh/year, 30%, 6%, 10% and 231 ktonnes CO2eq/year, respectively. The LCOE for a base case scenario is estimated at 0.093 US$/kWh, with a FIT of 0.195 US$/kWh. Finally, the results of this work can be used as guidelines for wind power project development in the central region of Thailand and in other regions of the world where the wind resource is low to moderate under current existing WTG technology.

EMT Real-Time Simulation Model of a 2 GW Offshore Renewable Energy Hub Integrating Electrolysers

Due to their weak nature, such as low inertia, offshore energy hubs are prone to unprecedented fast dynamic phenomena. This can lead to undesired instability problems. Recent literature, with main focus on onshore systems, suggests that electrolysers could be an attractive option to support wind generators in the mitigation of balancing problems. This paper presents an Electromagnetic Transient (EMT) model for real-time simulation based study of the dynamics of active power and voltage responses of offshore hubs due to wind speed fluctuations. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the ability of an electrolyser to support an offshore energy hub under different scenarios and with different locations of the electrolyser. Two locations of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolysers were considered: centralised (at the AC common bus of the hub) or distributed (at the DC link of the wind turbines). Numerical simulations conducted in RSCAD® on a 2 GW offshore hub with 4 × 500 MW wind power plants and 330 or 600 MW PEM electrolysers show that electrolysers can effectively support the mitigation of sudden wind speed variations, irrespective of the location. The distributed location of electrolysers can be beneficial to prevent large spillage of wind power generation during the isolation of faults within the hub.

Selection of Input Variables and Comparison of Artificial Neural Networks and One-Dimensional Convolutional Neural Networks for Prediction of Wind Power Generation in Yeongheung Wind Power Plant

Objectives : In this study, deep learning models of artificial neural network (ANN) and one-dimension convolutional neural networks (1D-CNN) were compared to predict nonlinear wind power generation at Yeongheung wind power plant.Methods : The study site was Yeongheung-do, which has a 46 MW wind power plant. Hourly wind power and meteorological data from January to December 2018 were collected. After pre-processing with standardscaler, the training data were 64%, the validation data were 16%, and the test data were 20%. The optimum input variables of the model were selected using literature, and trial and error method. Rectified linear unit was used as the activation function. Hyperparameters were adjusted by trial and error method to optimized models. To compare the optimized models, the coefficient of determination (R2), mean absolute error (MAE), and root mean square error (RMSE) were used as the performance efficiency. Both ANN, and 1D-CNN were imported from the Keras library, and all of the performance efficiency was imported from the Scikit-learn library.Results and Discussion : The optimized input variables in this study were wind speed, wind direction, temperature, and humidity. The optimized ANN performance was R2=0.848, MAE=1.054, and RMSE=1.616, and the hyperparameters were 8 hidden layers with 100 nodes in each layer. The optimized 1D-CNN (R2=0.875, MAE=0.982, and RMSE=1.583) had 4 convolutional layers and the number of filters were 64, 128, 64, and 32 in order from the first layer, and one hidden fully connected layer had 100 nodes. The 1D-CNN had higher R2, and lower MAE and RMSE than the ANN. Therefore, the 1D-CNN was selected as the optimized model to predict wind generation of the Yeongheung wind power plant.Conclusions : The optimized 1D-CNN model in this study was more effective in predicting the Yeongheung wind power plant than the ANN. The optimal input variables were wind speed, wind direction, temperature, and humidity.

Assessment of Economic Viability of Wind Power Plant in Bonny Island of Rivers State of Southern Nigeria for Cleaner Electricity Generation

This paper presents the economic viability of a 30 MW wind power plant in Bonny Island, Rivers State, Nigeria, as a mandate to define the suitability of siting wind farms for the purpose of electricity generation. Bonny Island is presently not connected to Nigeria utility grid, as such sustainable and reliable electricity generation is desirable. In this work, wind electricity generation and economic assessment of Enercon E-82 (2 MW) wind turbines operating at 78 m hub height was investigated. The result showed the chosen turbine model can generate total annual electricity of 89,684 MWh at an energy cost of $0.1/ kWh and 38,796 tons of CO2 on greenhouse gas saving. The result also showed that the wind power generation is economically viable in Bonny Island. Keywords: Renewable energy, wind power, RETScreen, Economic Assessment, Bonny Island.