A new Reliability Index for turbine selection

For the development of smart grid more and more distributed generation like wind, solar, fuel cell are introduced to the distribution networks in the power systems. Among them wind power generation is identified as the most advantageous and promising source for the future. Wind resource assessment and analysis is a crucial step in gauging the potential of many areas to produce electrical energy. After analyzing the potential, identifying a suitable turbine for a potential site is very significant in wind energy conversion system (WECS). Usually the turbine selection for a potential site is done on the basis of capacity factor, which is the ratio of the average power output to the rated power of the turbine. The intermittent nature of wind calls for its attention for reliability evaluation to integrate the same to the conventional system. The commonly defined reliability indices like Loss of Load Expectation (LOLE), Loss of Load Probability (LOLP), Expected Energy Not Supplied (EENS) give indication about the insufficiency of the power generation to meet the load, but it does not give indication about the consistency of operation. A new reliability index, Turbine Reliability Index (TRI) is proposed to evaluate the performance of turbines in the selected sites. The wind data of a potential site, Kayathar in Tamil Nadu in India was collected for the analysis. Along with the capacity factor, which is the basis of selection of a turbine, if we include the newly proposed index also for the selection of a turbine for a particular site, the performance of the wind energy conversion system can be improved.