Future wind power production variations in the Swedish power system

Abstract

Wind power is expanding in Sweden as in many other countries. Varying wind power production may be a challenge for the electric power system to balance due to the intermittency. The paper studies three future scenarios of wind power expansion in Sweden and relates that to the current system power reserves located in each congestion area. Production from existing wind farms has been used to simulate future wind power production and variations. The variations that will be the largest challenge to handle are found in area four in South of Sweden, with small power reserves, big wind power expansion plans, small transmission capacity, and a limited smoothing effect due to the small area.