During the last decade, the integration of large-scale renewable energy resources like wind energy into the existing power girds has increased dramatically. In particular, the inherent intermittency and uncertainty of wind power poses new challenges for reliable and stable of power grids. Frequency control is one of the most significant challenges, especially in systems with few control reserves. To address this problem, we propose an optimization-based method for secondary frequency regulation that enables wind turbines to respond to frequency variations. Instead of relying on energy storage systems, the wind turbine’s kinetic energy storage and self-regulation capabilities are leveraged to optimize the trade off between providing frequency regulation and maximizing wind power yield. Moreover, the proposed method is amenable to online implementation and shows good performance in scenarios with time varying wind speeds. A detailed case study in a dedicated co-simulation environment is used to validate the proposed optimal control method and demonstrate its improved performance over standard approaches combining maximum power point tracking and conventional automatic generation control.