Performance Comparison of Aggregated and Distributed Energy Storage Systems in a Wind Farm For Wind Power Fluctuation Suppression

Abstract

As wind penetration increases, the adverse impact of wind power fluctuations on the system frequency becomes significant. Especially for isolated or weakly connected small- scale power systems, the wind power induced system frequency deviations might exceed beyond the safe range set by utilities. Coupling energy storage system (ESS) to wind energy can smooth the wind power. The ESS in a wind farm can be either aggregated or distributed configured. This paper examines the performance differences of the two ESS configurations. The evaluation of the ESS performance is based on the fluctuation harmonic content (FHC) which quantitatively describes how fluctuant the power is. The system frequency deviations induced by untreated and filtered wind powers are investigated in a study system with different generation mixes. This research shows the distributed ESS configuration is as effective as its aggregated counterpart in wind power smoothing and system frequency deviation reduction.