Variability and smoothing effect of wind power production compared to load variability in the Nordic countries

This paper analyses the variability of load, wind power production and their combination in the Nordic countries during 2009-11, based on real data measured from large-scale wind power. The results show that wind and load variations are not correlated between the countries, which is beneficial from the viewpoint of wind integration.

The smoothing effect is shown as reduction of variability from a single country to Nordic wide wind power. The impact of wind power on the variability that the system sees is depicted by analysing the variability of net load with different wind power penetration levels. The timing of ramps, and occurrence of high wind and low load are studied.

With current wind penetration, low production levels (2-5 % of installed wind power) can occur in a single country during peak loads, but in the Nordic region the production during peak loads does not fall to so low levels (minimum 14 % during 10 highest peaks).