Wind Modeling for Integrated Energy Projects

Kongiganak Wind Farm Picture by Puvurnaq Power Company

Josh CraftAssistant Wind Program Manager

Alaska Energy Authorityjcraft@aidea.org

(907) 771-3043

Wind Modeling for Integrated Energy Projects. . . Where’s the Data?

• Wind Data

• Electrical Data

• Thermal Load Diesel Consumption

Wind Modeling for Integrated Energy Projects. . . Wind Data

• Minimum one year of data collected from a meteorological (met) tower.

• Includes wind speed and direction at 20 and 30 meters and temperature data at three meters.

• Data collected every two seconds with the average, minimum, maximum and std. deviation stored every 10 minutes.

Wind Modeling for Integrated Energy Projects. . . Electrical Data

• For feasibility level modeling one hour electrical load data is required.

• Measure one year of power plant data during the met tower study and correlate with the wind data.

• Use monthly PCE data to determine average load and scale a data set from another equivalent community.

• Use the AEA Village Load Calculator to construct a data set.

Wind Modeling for Integrated Energy Projects. . . Thermal Data

• Yearly, preferably monthly diesel consumption for individual buildings being considered for secondary heat loads. Using heating degree days daily usage can be calculated from this data.

• Flow measurements and temperature data from waste heat recovery loops.

• As average penetrations increase and secondary heat loads become further integrated higher resolution data will be needed.

Wind Modeling for Integrated Energy Projects. . . Project Sizing and Economics

Penetration Class

Operating CharacteristicsInstantaneous Penetration

Average Penetration

Diesel runs full timeWind power reduces net load on dieselAll wind energy goes to primary loadNo supervisory control systemDiesel runs full timeAt high wind power levels, secondary loads are dispatched to insure suffi cient diesel loading or wind generation is curtailed.Requires relatively simple control systemDiesel runs full-timeAt medium to high wind power levels, secondary loads are dispatched to insure suffi cient diesel loading.

More complex secondary load control system is needed to ensure that heat loads do not become saturated during extended windy periods.Diesels may be shut down during high wind availabilityAuxiliary components are required to regulate voltage and frequencyRequires sophisticated control system

Medium 120%-300% 20%-50%

High 300%-900% 50%-150%

Very Low <60% <8%

Low 60% - 120% 8%-20%

Projects that are too small won’t take advantage of economies of scale.

Projects that are too large may have excess power that never gets used.

Wind Modeling for Integrated Energy Projects. . . Data Driven Decisions

• How much wind should be installed?

• Which wind turbine should I be using?

Wind Modeling for Integrated Energy Projects. . . Data Driven Decisions

• Community Drivers• Preferences• Access

• Systemic Drivers• Average, Minimum and Peak Loads• Genset Size• Wind Resource Assessment

• Economic Drivers• Funding• Size and complexity vs. additional production

Wind Modeling for Integrated Energy Projects. . . HOMER Modeling

Wind Modeling for Integrated Energy Projects. . . HOMER Modeling

• Grew out of NREL’s Village Power Program in 1992.

• A publically available version came out in 1997.

• The commercial product became available in 2009.

• AEA continues to work with HOMER Energy to improve the software.

• HOMER is a feasibility level modeling tool. Higher level modeling will be performed at the design stage.

Wind Modeling for Integrated Energy Projects. . . Economic Modeling

• Excess wind energy used for heat is not valued as high as wind for electricity.

• AEA uses ISER fuel projections to estimate lifetime savings.

• Please feel free to contact the AEA Wind Program with additional questions on how AEA models the economics of Renewable Energy Projects.

Wind Modeling for Integrated Energy Projects. . . St. George Wind-Diesel Project

Wind Modeling for Integrated Energy Projects. . . St. George Wind-Diesel Project

• The Wind Resource Assessment based on a 13 month met tower study found St. George to be a Class 7 wind regime with average wind speed of 9.5 m/s (21 mph) and turbulence intensity of .1.

• Electrical data was disjointed. A mixture of PCE data, power plant monitoring and estimates. This resulted in a range of average loads ranging from 90-105 kW.

• No thermal data gathered.

Wind Modeling for Integrated Energy Projects. . . Turbine and Genset Selection

• The remanufactured 95 kW Windmatic 17s was recommended due to its nameplate capacity, robust, basic design, availability of inverter based controller and its relatively inexpensive price tag.

• The RPSU program was planning to install four John Deer 6090 gensets. As part of the modeling the use of a single John Deere 4045 was investigated in place of one of the 6090s.

Wind Modeling for Integrated Energy Projects. . . Closing Thoughts

• Pick the low hanging fruit first

• Erecting a wind turbine is the “easy” part

• Each project must be looked at holistically

• There is no “one size fits all” wind-diesel system

• A lower penetration system which works consistently will out perform a higher penetration system which seldom works

Wind Modeling for Integrated Energy Projects. . . That’s all folks

Josh CraftAsst. Wind Program ManagerAlaska Energy Authority(907) 771-3043jcraft@aidea.org

Thank you for your time