The Spanish Experience of the grid integration of wind energy sources

There are over 8400 MW of installed wind power in the Spanish Electrical System. This amount of installed power, compared with a load peak around 43700 MW, has a big impact on system operation. Some particularities of the Spanish Peninsular Power system, a satellite of the UCTE interconnected network, with weak interconnection ties with the rest of Europe, suggest that this integration should be analysed very carefully. The already collected real-time experience and the events experienced have created an interesting background for the integration of wind energy without jeopardising the actual levels of quality and allowing the achievement of the national and European environmental targets. This paper describes the actual situation of the integration of wind power in Spain, presents the actual regulation, especially on the economic incentives, and reports the experience and the next steps to be followed for a harmonized integration of wind energy.