Characteristics of Wind Power Systems: Yahia Baghzouz Unlv Las Vegas, NV, USA
Characteristics of Wind Power Systems: Yahia Baghzouz Unlv Las Vegas, NV, USA
Characteristics of Wind Power Systems: Yahia Baghzouz Unlv Las Vegas, NV, USA
Systems
Yahia Baghzouz
UNLV
Las Vegas, NV, USA
Overview
– Wind power history and trends
– Wind turbine designs
– Wind generator types
– Wind power efficiency
– Wind power equation/curve
– Wind spilling methods
– Characteristics of wind variability
– Wind forecasting
Wind Power
Since ancient times, people have harnessed the wind's energy for
sailing. Centuries later, people improved the basic design of the
windmill as they gave it propeller-type blades to pump water and
grind grains.
Wind power – brief history
• First wind mill used to generate
electricity (year: 1888, rated
power: 12 kW)
• Death to this industry by rural
electrification.
• Renewed interest in US in the
1970’s due the oil shock,
followed government incentives.
• US stopped installations in the
late 1980’s due to expiration of
tax credits, but wind turbine
technology continued in Europe.
• World-wide boom began in the Source: Robert W. Righter, Wind Energy in
mid 1990’s. America: A History
Drivers of Wind Energy
Declining Wind Generator Costs - Fuel Price Uncertainty - Federal and
State Policies - Economic Development - Green Power Marketing.
Wind turbine Designs
• Horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT) are the most popular -
compared to vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT).
– Advantages of VAWT: (a) automatically faces the wind, (b) the heavy
machinery can be located on the ground, (c) lightweight.
– Disadvantages of VAWT: (a) the blades are close to the ground (low
speed, turbulent wind), (b) hard to spill the wind.
HAWT VAWT
Upwind versus Downwind HAWT
• Downwind: the wind controls the yaw (left– right motion), i.e., it
orients itself with respect wind direction. But the shadowing effects
of the tower causes the blade to flex, thus resulting in fatigue, noise
and reduces power output.
• Upwind: requires a complex yaw control systems to keep the blades
facing into the wind, but operates more smoothly and deliver more
power. Most modern wind turbines are of the upwind type.
Specific wind turbine performance
• The blades convert the kinetic energy in the wind into rotating
shaft power to spin a generator that produces electric power.
• The rotor blades extract energy from the wind based on
Bernoulli’s principle to obtain lift (i.e., due to pressure difference).
• Since the blade is moving much faster at the tip than near the
hub, the blade must be twisted along its length to keep the angles
right.
• Increasing the angle of attack too much can result in a stall. When
a wing stalls, the airflow over the top no longer sticks to the
surface and the resulting turbulence destroys lift.
Optimal Number of blades
ns nm
Motor slip: s
ns
Torque-speed curve of induction machine
• Mechanical power delivered to the shaft:
• Mechanical torque:
Type 1 generator configuration
• Squirrel cage induction generator (energy capture cannot be
maximized due to nearly fixed speed range).
• Induction generators require reactive power to operate. This can
be drawn from the utility source or by local shunt capacitors.
Type 2 generator configuration
• Wound rotor induction generator with external resistance (limited
speed range, i.e., around 10%)
Synchronous or
Induction machine
Power in the wind
where
• ρ = air density (kg/m3 ).
At 15◦ C and 1 atm, ρ = 1.225 kg/m3
• A = cross-sectional area through
which the wind passes (m2 )
• v = wind speed normal to A (m/s)
Be careful when using average wind speed!
• Compare the energy at 15o C, 1 atm. pressure, contained in 1
m2 for the following wind regimes:
(A) 100 hours of 6-m/s winds
Answer: 13.23 kWh
(B) 50 hours at 3 m/s plus 50 hours at 9 m/s
Answer: 23.15 kWh → 75% more energy in (B) than (A)!
Speed (m/s)
B
9
A
6
Time (h)
50 100
Temperature and altitude correction
• When wind power data are presented, it is often assumed that
the air density is 1.225 kg/m3 (air temp = 15◦ C and pressure = 1
atm)
• Approximate variation in air density:
where the correction factors KT and KA are tabulated below
Impact of tower height
• Smooth surfaces, such as a calm sea, offer very little resistance
to wind, and the variation of speed with elevation is only
modest.
• At the other extreme, surface winds are slowed considerably by
high irregularities such as forests and buildings.
• One expression that is often used to characterize the impact of
the roughness of the earth’s surface on wind speed is the
following: - first approximation
50
Increased Wind power with a Taller Tower
• Example: An anemometer mounted at a height of 10 m shows
a wind speed of 5 m/s. Estimate the wind speed and the
specific power in the wind at a height of 50 m. Assume 15o C
and 1 atm of pressure. Assume a friction coefficient α = 0.2.
• Ans. Speed: 6.9 m/s, power = 76.5W/m2 (2.5 times more!)
Maximum rotor efficiency
• Betz’s law (1919): The wind turbine blade efficiency is maximum
when it slows the wind to one-third of its original velocity.
• → Maximum theoretical rotor efficiency = 59.3%
• Modern wind turbine blades can approach 80 percent of the
above limit, i.e., 45% - 50% efficiency in converting the power in
the wind into the power of a rotating generator shaft.
• For a given wind speed, rotor efficiency is a function of the rate at
which the rotor turns. A common way to illustrate rotor efficiency
is to present it as a function of the tip-speed-ratio:
where rpm is the rotor speed, D is the rotor diameter (m); and v is
the wind speed (m/s) upwind of the turbine.
Rotor efficiency as a function of TSR
Wind turbine generators
• Since the blade efficiency depends the TSR, the turbine blades
should change their speed as the wind speed changes.
Desire for both constant as variable rotor speed
• The impact on power produced (assuming generator & gear box
efficiency of 70%) is shown below.
• For grid-connected turbines, the challenge is to design machines
that can somehow accommodate variable rotor speed and
somewhat fixed generator speed.
Average power in the wind
Source: NREL
Daily Wind Power Production in Ireland (MW)
06/05/2009 1/17/2009
09/04/2009 3/2/2009
Wind power can reduce maximum and minimum load
Since wind power can be produced both during daylight and
night time, it can increase the gap between net demand at peak
and off-peak periods, thus increasing the need for more
dispatchable ramping capability from conventional resources.
Timing of wind power generation
In some cases, due to diurnal heating and cooling patterns, wind
generation output tends to peak during daily off-peak periods. The figure
below shows the California Independent System Operator (CAISO)
aggregate wind generation output over the ten-day July 2006 heat-wave
Timing of wind power generation
• Variable generation can ramp-up in unison with demand, easing ramping
requirements from conventional generators.
• It can also ramp in opposition to demand, increasing system ramping
requirements and thereby creating operational challenges.
Wind generator variability loses correlation as distance between
machines increases and time frame of interest decreases
Source: Ernst, B. and B. Oakleaf, M. Ahlstrom, M. Lange, C. Moehrlen, B. Lange, U. Focken, K. Rohrig,
Predicting the Wind, IEEE Power and Engineering Magazine, Nov/Dec 2007.
Wind power variability
• Generally, the (relative) variability of wind decreases as the generation of more
wind power plants is combined.
• The normalized wind variability is reduced with aggregation. This principle
applies to small-scale and large-scale geographical aggregation and to all
timescales of grid operation: Wind variability is smoothed over larger
geographic areas.
Source: NREL
California wind power ramps from diverse locations
• Like PV power plants, there is considerable diversity among wind plants
dispersed over a wider geographic area. Such spatial variation in wind speed
makes the combined output from many turbines significantly less variable
than that of a single turbine.
• The aggregate energy output from wind plants spread over a reasonably large
area tends to remain relatively constant on a minute-to-minute time frame,
with changes in output tending to occur gradually over an hour or more.
Source: Energinet.dk
Wind Power Generation Control
The major functional control capabilities of modern wind turbine
generation include:
• Voltage/VAR control/regulation: Reactive support and power factor
control can be provided either through built-in capability (available for
wind turbine generators Types 3 and 4) or through switched capacitor
banks.
• Voltage ride-through*: Voltage ride-through can be achieved with all
modern wind turbine generators, mainly through modifications of the
turbine generator controls.
• Power curtailment and ramping: Power curtailment and ramping can
be achieved through unit active-stall or pitch control, and/or discrete
tripping of individual units.
• Primary frequency regulation: Primary frequency regulation can be
supplied by all turbines that are equipped with some form of pitch
regulation (i.e., active-stall or pitch control).
• Inertial response: Inertial response is inherent in Type 1 and 2 units
and can be achieved through supplemental controls in the converter
to emulate inertial behavior for Type 3 and 4 units.
FERC Order 661A
• The order states that wind generating plants are required to remain in service
during three-phase faults with normal clearing (which is a time period of
approximately four to nine cycles) and single line-to-ground faults with delayed
clearing, and subsequent post-fault voltage recovery to pre-fault voltage unless
clearing the fault effectively disconnects the generator from the system.
• Additionally, the required reactive power range for wind plants is specified, and
some relatively nonspecific language about requirements for supervisory
control and data acquisition (SCADA) and interoperability with the network is
also included.
Source: http://www.ferc.gov/EventCalendar/Files/20051212171744-RM05-4-001.pdf
Complexity of Wind Energy