Wind Farm Power Fluctuations, Ancillary Services, and System Operating Impact Analysis Activities in the United States: Preprint

With ever increasing penetration of wind capacity and growing interest in wind power by electric utilities and other power providers, questions about the impacts and costs associated with maintaining a stable grid is receiving lots of attention. These issues are important, both in competitive and regulated monopoly markets.; To evaluate the range of ancillary service impact of wind power plants,wind power plant output fluctuations on the order of seconds to minutes must be known. However, the data required for a credible analysis has not been widely available. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), through its own efforts, and in conjunction with a wide group of stakeholders including other national labs, consultants, developers, utilities, and the non-profit Utility WindInterest Group, has initiated measurement and analysis activities.; The efforts are ongoing. While final system-cost results are not available, this paper will describe the progress to date and present typical results and statistical analysis. In addition, methods will be explained with the aim of soliciting feedback from others looking at similar issues worldwide.