Energy Sources Part A-recovery Utilization and Environmental Effects, Vol.37, No.8, 854-860, 2015
Geographical Distribution of Wind Power Plants and Its Influence on Power System Availability-Case Study Croatia
The main drawback of wind energy is its intermittent nature. While wind power plants have shown great potential for larger scale system integration and electricity production, the reliability of their output is still an issue. This article outlines one possible way of decreasing the variations of wind energy. By grouping several geographically dispersed wind power plants into a virtual unit, the intermittency of wind power can be reduced and the daily load curve smoothed. The main goal of this artcle is to present the analysis of interconnecting several geographically dispersed locations into a virtual power plant, while placing the emphasis on the actual benefits of such a synergy in terms of increased availability and production of stable power with a constant output. The analyses presented in this article are based on actual measurements on several locations in Croatia.