Efficient management of wind energy in-feed at a large German TSO

In Germany, the four transmission system operators (TSO) are in charge of integrating the fluctuating electricity production of wind power plants into the grid. Due to the framework of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) the EnBW Transportnetze AG is responsible for about 14% of the wind energy production in Germany although the EnBW grid has only about 2% of the installed capacity. This paper describes the integration of wind power in Germany especially within EnBW Transportnetze AG. The EEG and the immediate exchange of wind power between the four German grid control areas will be explained shortly. The different activities for transformation and balancing wind energy are described in more detail. These activities can be divided into two parts: Transformation of the fluctuating wind generation into a baseload power supply by using the wholesale (day ahead and earlier) and activities for balancing the remaining differences between predicted and actual wind power generation. The focus of the paper is on reporting practical experiences.