Estimation of Wind Power Variation and Availability for Multiple Wind Farms

Due to its intermittent nature, integrating large quantities of wind power in power systems has serious impacts on power system operation. Wind power increases the load variation and the reserve requirements for contingencies. Utilities are especially concerned about the wind power availability during the peak load demand time. In this paper, the wind power variation and availability for multiple wind farms distributed in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico are analyzed based on actual wind data. Considering multiple wind farms as part of one big wind farm distributed over a large area can decrease the wind power variation and increase the total wind power availability.