Estimation of Energy Losses in a Wind Park

By E Diaz-Dorado et al

The study of energy losses in any electric installation is closely related to energy efficiency. Its calculation depends on the number and the quality of the available electrical measurements. Typically, every wind park has electrical measurements in all its wind turbines and its HV point of connection. However, it is difficult to calculate in an easy way these losses due to problems like redundancy, inaccuracy, lack of data, etc.

A state estimation (SE) method will be proposed in this article, in order to calculate the power losses. By means of available measurements (power, voltage, current...) and parameters of the network (cables, transformers...), the losses taking place in each element can be obtained. SE also allows detecting errors in measurement and calculating the wind park state when certain measurement equipments are unavailable. Wind speed measurements are used to get pseudo-measurement if necessary and to filter errors.

Finally, an economic study will be done taking into account the different ways of selling wind energy in the Spanish network. Consequently, the economic importance of losses will be evaluated too.

The location of this project is The Sotavento Wind Park, Serra da Loba, Spain. The results shown throughout this article have been applied there with the aim of analysing its energy efficiency.