ONLINE-MONITORING AND PREDICTION OF WIND POWER IN GERMAN TRANSMISSION SYSTEM OPERATION CENTRES

Normally, electrical systems are able to absorb a certain amount of unregulated and fluctuating production from renewable energy sources (RES), especially wind power. The electrical systems must be designed and operated in order to accommodate the changes in the consumption, a trip of a conventional production unit or a fault on a transmission line. For systems with a high penetration of wind power, the most significant difference is that in addition to forecasts of the consumption, predictions are also to be prepared of the unregulated wind power production. Such predictions are necessary both for the TSO and for the players on the power market that owns significant wind power production sites as well. At the end of 2002, more than 13,500 Wind Turbines (WTs) with an installed capacity of 11,850 MW generated approx. 17,300 GWh and supplied about 3.6 % of the German electricity consumption in 2002 [1]. Wind-generated power now provides a noticeable percentage of the total electrical power consumed, and also exceeds the base load on the network in some utility areas. This indicates that wind is becoming a significant factor in electricity supply, and in balancing consumer demand with power production. Not least in the grid areas of the German TSO’s E.ON Netz and Vattenfall Europe Transmission GmbH more than 100 % of the electricity consumption at times has been covered by wind power. A well-established and scientific analysis of the time response of wind power as well as the accurate determination of the current and expected wind power will lead to an improved integration of wind generation into the electrical power system and reduce CO2 emissions sustainable. In frame of governmental and EC funded projects and in co-operation with the German TSO’s E.ON Netz, RWE Net and Vattenfall Europe Transmission, ISET developed a new planning tool to support large scale wind power integration into the electrical energy supply system – the Wind Power Management System WPMS. WPMS provides the current level of wind power generation (onlinemonitoring) as well as the short-term prediction from 1 hour up to 72 hours.