Increasing Wind Power Harvest while Minimizing Power System Disturbances Using a Modified Wind Turbine Generation Curve

Power system operation under varying generations and demands is challenging, and integration of intermittent wind power complicates the system even more. Wind power generation under heavy winds is associated with power fall-outs from the power system due to the wind speeds exceeding the maximum limits of the turbine. These sudden power withdrawals at high wind speeds could be associated with some economic losses due to untapped energy concentration available at such speeds. This is in addition to power system disturbances that are likely to occur in a hybrid system operation, which, if not properly tackled can cause other serious system issues and even collapse depending on the magnitude of the injected power from the wind farm. Using excessive spinning reserves as is sometimes done to deal with the resulting fall-outs may not be a suitable option, considering the heavy economic implications of running the reserves. A solution to this issue is proffered in this work by using an innovative method. A wind turbine with a modified power characteristics curve is proposed, such that the turbine continues to operate with reduced output power beyond the normal cut-off point instead of a total sudden generation withdrawal. The results obtained in this method have indicated power system stability enhancement in addition to improvement in power harvests. A multi-period dispatch operation with wind will greatly benefit from this.