Status of wind-related US national and regional grid code activities

As the number and size of wind power plants continue to grow, utility system operators and transmission network operators around the globe have begun to take note of the possible impact of the plants on power system performance during both normal and abnormal system conditions. Until recently, the number and size of wind power plants was such that it was not uncommon for interconnection practices to require that the plant be disconnected from the grid during a system disturbance, and reconnected when the system had returned to a normal state. This is no longer commonly accepted practice, as the size of recent wind power plants is as large as a typical fossil unit, and their behavior is an important component of overall system behavior both during normal and abnormal conditions.