Project CEMAPRE internal
| Title | Statistical analysis of wind farms |
| Participants | Alda Carvalho (Principal Investigator), Cláudia Sequeira, Tiago Silva |
| Summary | The importance of wind energy in the context of environmental policies related to the production of electricity has been growing in recent years. However, due to the random nature of this type of energy generation, the integration of the produced wind energy remains a challenge, especially if one considers that the power injected into the energy distribution network can suffer sudden fluctuations, resulting in an imbalance thereof. In addition, the production of wind energy is also influenced by the diverse wind profiles that may vary from one location to another. Moreover, the structure of each wind turbine is quite complex and its maintenance is a key factor to extend its life-cycle and the consequent economic income. Hence, to avoid frequent and costly repairs, it is pertinent to integrate all the identified sources of uncertainty. In order to understand such phenomena, real data from several wind turbines, located in different wind farms, is used. This work is developed in collaboration with a company that owns several wind farms, representing the largest share of the wind energy produced in Portugal. Statistical methods may be used to identify patterns in the temporal data, for instance, the time distribution of extreme values of the produced energy. This analysis is expected to contribute to the optimization of the injection of electric power in the distribution network, as well as to the wind farm operators, regarding the enhancement of maintenance and grid operations scheduling towards the increase of the economic efficiency. |