Technical and commercial impacts of the integration of wind power in the Portuguese system having in mind the Iberian Electricity Market

Portugal is committed towards the EU to an ambitious target of attaining 39% of renewable energy production by 2010, as defined in the RES Directive. The new big hydroelectric investments, together with the mini-hydro power stations that are expected to be ready until 2010 will not be able to increase largely this share of needed renewable energy. The missing renewable energy should be produced exploiting wind energy, meaning that by 2010 a wind power capacity of more than 4.000 MW should to be in operation. At the same time Spain is also increasing wind power integration, such that by 2010 more than 13.000 MW are expected to be installed. The Spanish and the Portuguese electric power systems are facing at the same the challenge of a regional electricity market - the Iberian Electricity Market. This requires that wind power integration must be tackled having in mind technical and commercial concerns.