Simulations of energy storage requirements of wind energy facilities

Abstract

Wind-energy facilities' key parameters for the attribution of the energy-storage (ES) cost at the grid level are the nominal capacity of the facility P, the annual mean capacity factor εa and its SD using high-frequency (HF) sampling σ. Here, we compare εa and σ calculated from measurements and resource-based simulations. The energy production to the grid is available every 5 minutes for a specific year. Meteorological data are available hourly and not for the specific year, but only for the typical year, about ground level, and from stations located in towns and cities relatively far from the wind-energy facilities. While the computed and measured εa are in reasonable agreement, after tuning, the difference between the hourly σ is large. It is concluded that contemporary HF data of energy production and speed of the wind at hub height, plus other meteorological data, in the wind-energy-facility, are essential for validating presently inaccurate wind energy simulations.