Reliability of a Small Isolated Power System in Remote Areas Based on Wind Power

Other conference contribution, 2004

Building hybrid system with wind and diesel generation for supplying isolated power system is a well-developed area. These systems are commercially available and in use in many parts of the world. The use of isolated power system is sometimes the only feasible option but using fossil fuel gives not a sustainable solution. Replacing the fossil fuel with a more environmental friendly power source, like hydro power, is preferred, and investigated in this paper. Different configurations of wind, hydro and storage capacities have been simulated and compared. Wind power is a good base source but will at most cover the load 70% of the time despite of the installed power. By combination with small hydro power and/or storage, a more suitable reliability is reached. A model for simulating wind speed time series is also proposed with a limited need of site-specific wind speed measurements. The limited measurement requirements is needed when building systems in underdeveloped parts of the world. There are seldom longtime wind speed data measurements conducted.