System impact study for the interconnection of wind generation and utility system

Following in the steps of the gas industry, the traditional paradigm of the vertically integrated electric utility structure has begun to change. In the United States, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued several rules and Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) to set the road map for the deregulated utility industry. The crisis in California has drawn great attention and sparked intense discussion within the utility industry. One general conclusion is to rejuvenate the idea of integrated resource planning and promote the distributed generation via traditional or renewable generation facilities for the deregulated utility systems. Wind generation is the most mature and cost effective resource among different renewable energy technologies. Recently, several large-scale wind generation projects have been implemented in the US and other parts of the world. Similar to other new generation facilities, the impacts of a large scale wind generation on the system operation, voltage profile, and system security have to be investigated and studied. Remedies for possible operation issues have to be evaluated and implemented. This paper discusses the impact study of connecting a 120 MW wind farm into the transmission system of a utility company within the Southwest Power Pool (SPP).