Adequacy-based placement of WECS in Egypt

Abstract

Energy plays a critical role in the Egyptian development and economy. Electricity demand has increased about twice the growth rate of other fuels. Wind power can contribute significantly to this growing electricity demand because the conditions for large-scale utilization of wind energy in Egypt are excellent. The objectives of this paper are to find the optimal locations of wind energy conversion system (WECS) in Egypt, and to build an overall program for evaluating WECS adequacy taking into effect of probability of wind availability, WECS availability, and tie-line (that interconnects WECS to the grid) transfer capability constraints, and its availability. System risk indices are evaluated for different peak load conditions, and different tie-line transfer capabilities. Moreover, wind observations over a long period of time at the Egyptian meteorological stations are analyzed, and transformed into wind speed probability distribution functions using windographer.