Wind Power
Figure3: AccumulatedWindCapacity
Swiss hydro has historically been developed
on the basis of huge storage volumes released
in one season to meet peak seasonal demand.
Investment is now taking place to install
pumpstoragesotransferscantakeplaceonce
a week rather than once a year.
Swiss hydro resources could provide
sufficientstoragetomanageallofSwitzerland
and Germany’s power, and there are at least
two dozen possible pump storage sites in the
Swiss Alps and twelve in Germany. At the
moment, pump storage in Switzerland is
absorbing excess baseload nuclear power and
releasing the power at peak times into the
Source: Wind Energy Study 2008 Deutsches Windenergie-Institut
German market.
competition and improve security of supply, as any available RetainingReserveCapacity
capacity on one national system can be put at the disposal of The potential problems of a high penetration of wind power
another, subject to the restrictions of the interconnection. are being downplayed by European policymakers grateful for
But the North Sea offshore grid goes a step further than an a domestically produced renewable technology. Although the
international interconnection because it implies multiple target 2020 proportion for wind as a percentage of total
connections with an added common power source through electricity generation is not that large, 12%, this average is
linkedoffshorewindfarms,potentiallyservingtheUK,French, likely to see large differences between EU Member States. And
Dutch,Belgian,German,DanishandNordicmarkets.Thegrid while wind's intermittency is likely to be ameliorated over
would be more likely to produce some power all of the time. time, the impact on prices of a growing proportion of wind in
According to the UK Meteorological the EU energy system may prove more
Office all areas of the North Sea are
The potential problems of a
immediately challenging than the
usually affected by the same weather
systems, typically Atlantic depressions
high penetration of wind
technical difficulties that a higher
penetration of wind poses.
from the west, but it is fairly rare for
power are being downplayed
The issue for the producers of power
calm to descend across the whole of the by European policymakers ... from fossil fuels (and nuclear) and for
North Sea at any one time. policy makers is that as the penetration
That suggests that offshore wind capacity tied into a North of wind rises, they are likely to see a material effect on prices,
Sea grid would start to provide power that could be depended while wind turbine income is protected by feed-in tariffs and
upon, albeit never quite with 100% certainty. However, that the like. This is a commercial problem for power generators,
“dependable” power would only be a fraction of the capacity but also for the wider system, as in all likelihood fossil fuel
ofthetotaloffshoresystem,andwouldbesplitbetweenallthe plant will still be needed for reserve capacity. It appears that
markets the grid would serve. Moreover, raising each national theinstallationofwindcapacityisracingaheadofinvestment
market'sexposuretowindmightnegatetheadvantagesofthe intheinfrastructurerequiredtomanagethatcapacityreliably.
export/import facility. The most common experience could Taken to its logical long-term conclusion, in this scenario, the
well be that they all experience similar patterns of rises and only companies eventually able to manage such infrequently
falls in wind power. used reserve assets commercially, will be the wind producers
(or aggregators) themselves.
•
HydroOption
Atriedandtestedformofstoragemightprovemorereliable.
RossMcCrackenis Editor, Platts Energy Economist.
According to Swiss parliamentarian and economist Dr.
This article first appeared in the April edition of Insight, the
Rudolph Rechsteiner, Swiss hydro reservoirs are already being
energy journal published by Platts.
adapted to create a system that provides storage capacity.
www.platts.com
150 worldPower2009
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