Developing, implementing and testing up and down regulation to provide AGC from a 10 MW wind farm during varying wind conditions

Abstract

With increasing levels of electrical energy generated by intermittent sources such as wind turbines, their participation in grid ancillary services is becoming a necessity. Typically, all generated energy from variable generators is absorbed by the electric grid and balancing is left to traditional generators. Wind turbine technology has matured to the level where a large wind generator is capable of providing ancillary services such as up- and down-active power regulation (secondary frequency regulation). The up-regulation capacity of a variable generator is constrained primarily by external factors such as the prevailing wind speed in the case of a wind turbine. This work uses the Wind Energy Institute of Canada's (WEICan) 10 MW Wind R&D Park (Type 5 generators) in Prince Edward Island, Canada, to test and evaluate a simple algorithm to provide up- and down-regulation services from a wind park. The developed algorithm uses a 10-minute averaged wind speed to estimate the available park generation potential. A fixed power curtailment is applied to provide room for up-regulation. An historical, external AGC signal is then applied to the wind park's active power set-point and the resulting park performance is evaluated. Results of the 4.5 hour test prove the technical capability of the wind farm in participating in the regulation market. A performance score of 64 % was calculated according to the PJM method, averaged across the test duration.