Wind farm modelling for reliability assessment

Increasing exploitation of wind energy requires the development of adequate models and techniques for reliability assessment of wind farms (WFs) and of electric power systems including wind energy conversion systems. A novel approach to WF modelling is investigated for reliability assessment, which is based on the universal generating functions. Such an approach combines the use of the z-transform and composition operators, allowing to account for all the factors affecting the WF performance. The results, both theoretical and numerical, of the case study, give evidence of the effectiveness of the proposed approach in terms of accuracy as well as of flexibility and efficiency of the solving algorithm.