Wind Plant Services

Addressing Wind Plant Design, Interconnection, and Operation

Wind power is the fastest growing form of electric generation in the world. Environmental friendliness, proven turbine technologies, and dramatically declining costs of production are driving unprecedented growth in the industry. Wind generation is even reemerging as an important "hedge" against the uncertainties plaguing energy markets.

As wind plants grow in size and number, questions about their possible impacts on the electrical grid become more complex. In addition, the design and operation of the internal electric distribution systems connecting hundreds of turbines to the bulk transmission system are important factors in the availability and reliability of wind plants.

Electrotek provides a range of technical and analytical services for assisting in the development of wind plants. Our combination of many years of power systems engineering expertise, along with over a decade of experience working with wind generation technologies and systems, is unique in the industry. We can assist with almost any power system issue relating to electric system planning, design, and operations, including

Bulk Transmission System Studies - evaluate the impacts of large wind plants on bulk transmission system operations, including steady-state and contingency analysis, impacts on interregional power transfer capability, network voltage stability, reactive power requirements, and transient stability.

Distributed Wind Plant Integration Studies - assess the influence of smaller distributed wind plants on distribution feeders and local loads, including voltage flicker, harmonics, and protective system operation.

Design and Operations Analysis of Wind Plant Power Systems - evaluate intra-plant electrical systems within large wind plants, focusing on

• reactive power management
• voltage regulation
• system dynamics including capacitor operations and reactive power generation from advanced turbines
• event analysis to determine root causes
• system and equipment performance validation and design improvements
• investigations of equipment misoperation and failure

Technology Consulting - provide expert opinion and perspective on wind generation and electrical system technologies, including power electronics and electric machinery for wind turbines and transmission and distribution system equipment. We also provide expert testimony in patent and other legal matters related to wind generation technology.

Monitoring and Information Systems - specify, design, install, and operate power monitoring systems for acquiring, analyzing, and reporting on plant operations. These systems provide data for event analysis, equipment and system performance verification, and forensic investigations into equipment failure.

Special Studies - use sophisticated simulation and analysis tools to conduct specialized and custom studies of new technologies for wind generation applications, including advanced power electronics systems for wind turbine and electric power system applications.

Analytical Capabilities and Tools

We utilize state-of-the-art computer simulation and analysis tools. We have expertise in a wide range of technical evaluations from electrical transient and harmonic analysis to large power system dynamics, including transient stability.

We use the following simulation and analysis tools

• PSS/E for bulk transmission system analysis, transient stability
• GE-PSLF™ for bulk transmission system analysis, transient stability
• Transmission 2000® for bulk transmission system analysis
• EMTP for transients, harmonics, special studies
• PSCAD® for transients, harmonics, voltage flicker, and special studies such as wind turbine and power electronics design
• SuperHarm® for power systems harmonics simulation and analysis
• PQView® for management and analysis of power monitoring data

These tools are used throughout the power industry, and allow us to work with a wide range of model data formats including any large transmission system models maintained by reliability councils or regional transmission organizations.

Specific Experience

Our project experience with plant developers and other wind industry stakeholders is extensive and diverse. This experience features a distinguished group of clients including the Mid-American Power Pool, GE Wind, Xcel Energy, SeaWest WindPower, EPRI, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Examples of specific projects include

• Interconnection studies required by regional reliability councils and individual utilities for approval of requests to interconnect with the transmission system.
• Transmission capacity and voltage stability studies, which can be critically important for wind plants located in sparsely populated areas remote from large load centers.
• Investigations of wind plant operating problems, including distribution feeder voltage unbalance and regulation, nuisance turbine tripping, turbine transformer failures, induction generator self-excitation, capacitor bank switching failures, harmonic resonance, ferroresonance, high neutral-to-earth potentials on rural utility feeders paralleling wind plant collector feeders, and surge protection equipment failures.
• Wind plant and wind turbine electrical system design improvements - improving feeder and turbine voltage regulation, reactive power management strategies, dynamic thermal rating of transformers for increased capacity.
• Technology assessment and evaluation - design projects for state-of-the-art wind turbine and wind plant technology, including advanced power electronics, control technologies, and novel electric machinery.
• Technology consulting - expert testimony and analysis in intellectual property and patent matters, and in support of insurance or contractual issues.
• Leading-edge research and development - assessing the impact of substantial amounts of wind power on utility control area operations planning and scheduling, determining ancillary services requirements (regulation, load following, reserves) for wind plants, quantifying the value of next-hour and next-day wind forecasting from a control area operations perspective.
• Detailed simulation and modeling - developing sophisticated electromechanical models of wind turbines, electric machinery, and power electronics elements for time-domain computer simulations to enhance design processes and improve system performance.