When the wind blows over Europe a simulation analysis and the impact of grid extensions

Wind power is the fastest growing renewable energy generation source in the European Union. Implementation of the EU-directive 2001/77/EG in the member states fosters incentives for further investments into wind capacities. Accordingly, there is the expectation of significant increase of installed wind capacities for the European Union. This paper analyzes the impact of wind energy extension scenarios in 2020 on the UCTE grid using a nodal pricing mechanism. Our study is based on a DC Load Flow network model and implemented in GAMS. The results show that necessary network extensions mostly stem from already existing congestion particularly between countries whereas the additional wind capacities can be integrated with relatively little effort.