Effect of energy storage on variations in wind power

Abstract

Irregularities in power output are characteristic of intermittent energy, sources such as wind energy, affecting both the power quality and planning of the energy system. In this work the effects of energy storage to reduce wind power fluctuations are investigated. Integration of the energy storage with wind power is modelled using a filter approach in which a time constant corresponds to the energy storage capacity. The analyses show that already a relatively small energy storage capacity of 3 kWh (storage) per MW wind would reduce the short-term power fluctuations of an individual wind turbine by 10%. Smoothing out the power fluctuation of the wind turbine on a yearly level would necessitate large storage, e.g. a 10% reduction requires 2–3 MWh per MW wind. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.