Methods of Reducing Wind Power Changes from Large Wind Turbine Arrays

Previous results have [1,2,3] been concerned with establishing (1) whether operating problems could exist when WECS generation is significant and (2) the proper modification of unit commitment, regulation, and economic dispatch required to provide sufficient system security and alleviate the operating problems caused by WECS generation changes. This paper discusses methods of reducing the WECS generation change through selection of the wind turbine model for each site, selection of an appropriate siting configuration, and wind array controls. An analysis of wind generation change from an echelon and a farm for passage of a thunderstorm is presented to establish the factors concerning the wind turbine model and ; siting configuration that contribute to these variations. Detailed simulation results indicate more. precisely how these factors can be exploited to. minimize the WECS generation changes observed. Reduction of the wind generation change over ten minutes is shown to reduce the increase in spinning reserve, unloadable generation and load following requirements on unit commitment when significant WECS generation is present and the farm penetration constraint is satisfied. Controls on the blade pitch angle of all wind turbines in an array or a battery control are shown to reduce both the wind generation change out of an array and the effective farm penetration in anticipation of a storm so that the farm penetration constraint may be satisfied.