Wind power growth significantly worldwide, the installed wind power capacity globally shown that there is an increase from just 283GW in 2012 to 369,55GW as at the end of 2014. And there will be more expectation in future years. This was achieved as a result of government policies on energy consumption from renewable resources. The government is doing an effort to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and over dependence of imported petroleum by some countries and using coal to produce energy.
To supply electricity to potential consumers, the substantial amount of wind power requires to be connected to the power system. Wind power system poses different qualities that differentiate their integration from other conventional power plants. The size of wind power mostly varies from a kilowatt(KW) range single turbine to hundreds of megawatt(MW) wind farm. Wind power are connected to the grid at various voltage level. The required power during normal operation of conventional power plants can be generated at any time, provided the power demand is within the technical constrain of the plant. And therefore the power output is controllable and predictable. On the other hands, the wind power output depend mainly on the wind power condition and location of the area as well as fluctuations of the wind. The production of electrical energy by conventional sources uses synchronous generator. Wind power plants however, uses different type of generator system which includes induction generators, double fed induction generators, and induction or synchronous generator with full power converters. Every one of this generator system is having various opportunities and challenges to the power grid.
Wind, wind power, wind turbines, overvoltage, overloading
