Operational Impacts of Large Deployments of Offshore Wind

The potential operational impact of deploying 54 GW of offshore wind in the United States was examined. The capacity was not evenly distributed; instead, it was concentrated in regions with better wind quality and close to load centers (Table 1). A statistical analysis of offshore wind power time series was used to assess the effect on the power system. The behavior of offshore wind resembled that of onshore wind, despite the former presenting higher capacity factors, more consistent power output across seasons, and higher variability levels. Thus, methods developed to manage onshore wind variability can be extended and applied to offshore wind.