Wind Power Plants for Low Rated Wind Speed Regions: Feasibility Analysis and Simulation of a System

Abstract

The use of wind power has become an important and growing part of the electrical energy supply in many countries all over the world. Wind turbines are the main components of wind power stations and every single development on these turbines affects the market. Latest developments in wind turbine technologies caused to decrease in costs, thus, besides high-wind-speed regions, low-wind-speed regions are taken into account as a feasible option to generate electricity. The present work investigates the feasibility of a wind power station located in a low rated wind speed region of Turkey providing a general approach for selection of the suitable wind turbine. Economic analysis was performed by calculating the key financial figures such as net present value (NPV), basic payback period (BPP) and the internal rate of return (IRR) for five various options and hourly mean, monthly and seasonal power productions are simulated for the most feasible option using the wind speed measurements in the region. Results show that it is possible to obtain a reasonable capacity factor in low rated wind speed regions with wind turbines that have larger rotors. Although the average wind speed is low in the examined region, a wind power station is still found to be feasible. According to the simulation results, maximum power is produced during the evening hours on a daily basis and during the summer months on a seasonal basis, ensuring power flow usually when maximum power consumption levels are reached. All the data used in this study are based on long-term measurements.