Improving the Reliability and Efficiency of Wind Power in Power Plant Using Improvised Balancing Mechanism
Over the past two decades, there has been a general increase in the demand for electricity. Much attention has been turned to renewable energy, such as the wind. Various governments across the world have focused on increasing electricity by using renewable energy. According to Dabiri, et al. (2015), in the United States of America, the government is focusing on increasing wind energy by more than 20% by the end of the year 2020. Despite this, there are several challenges that reduce the reliability and efficiency of the wind as an alternative source of renewable energy.
The methods currently used in the Wind Power Plants are neither reliable nor efficient. As explained by Grauers (1996), wind cannot provide a continuous supply of energy. He further explains that wind power plants have only 25% rated efficiency. The attention to increasing wind energy efficiency by combining gas turbines, utility batteries, low-temperature gasification, and solar panels in power plants has not helped much. A new method needs to be used that can significantly improve its efficiency and reliability.
As explained by Cassola and Burlando (2012), the main problem in the wind power plant is that the prevailing weather conditions determine the energy output. This ideally makes it less reliable. In essence, wind energy output reduces during poor weather conditions, such as low wind strengths. On the other hand, extreme higher wind conditions also affect its output by spoiling the turbines. As illustrated by Barthelmie and Jensen (2010), these present great challenges in managing the efficiency and reliability of wind energy in power plants. Engineers have been working on methods of improving the efficiency and reliability of wind energy power plants. However, the current balancing mechanism being used is not giving the best results (Manwell, McGowan, & Rogers, 2010). There is a need to use an improvised balancing mechanism that has the capability of improving the efficiency and reliability of wind energy.
References
Barthelmie, R. J., & Jensen, L. E. (2010). Evaluation of wind farm efficiency and wind turbine wakes at the Nysted offshore wind farm. Wind Energy, 13(6), 573-586.
Cassola, F., & Burlando, M. (2012). Wind speed and wind energy forecast through Kalman filtering of Numerical Weather Prediction model output. Applied Energy, 99, 154-166.
Dabiri, J. O., Greer, J. R., Koseff, J. R., Moin, P., & Peng, J. (2015, March). A new approach to wind energy: Opportunities and challenges. In PHYSICS OF SUSTAINABLE ENERGY III (PSE III): Using Energy Efficiently and Producing It Renewably (Vol. 1652, pp. 51-57). AIP Publishing.
Grauers, A. (1996). Efficiency of three wind energy generator systems. Energy Conversion, IEEE Transactions on, 11(3), 650-657.
Manwell, J. F., McGowan, J. G., & Rogers, A. L. (2010). Wind energy explained: theory, design and application. John Wiley & Sons.