Simplified analysis of the electric power losses for on-shore wind farms considering weibull distribution parameters

Abstract

Electric power losses are constantly present during the service life of wind farms and must be considered in the calculation of the income arising from selling the produced electricity. It is typical to estimate the electrical losses in the design stage as those occurring when the wind farm operates at rated power, nevertheless, it is necessary to determine a method for checking if the actual losses meet the design requirements during the operation period. In this paper, we prove that the electric losses at rated power should not be considered as a reference level and a simple methodology will be developed to analyse and foresee the actual losses in a set period as a function of the wind resource in such period, defined according to the Weibull distribution, and the characteristics of the wind farm electrical infrastructure. This methodology facilitates a simple way, to determine in the design phase and to check during operation, the actual electricity losses.