Effects of increasing wind power penetration on the physical operation of large electricity market systems

This contribution describes indirect coupling effects between wind power infeed and physical operation of power market systems by means of qualitative hypotheses, backed by suited exploratory data analyses. As an example, the case of a central European TSO located in the vicinity of a control block with high wind penetration is demonstrated. It shows, based on established methods of computational statistics, considerable nonlinear effects on cross border power flows and transmission system flows of that control block, conditional on increasing wind power penetration in an interconnected market system. The observed effects are theoretically explained through the influence of the wind infeed on the behaviour of market participants and attributed to indirect coupling between wind power and conventional generation in adjacent control blocks.