Investigating the Impact of Wind Farms Energy Yields on Reduction of Power Plants Natural Gas Consumptions and CO2 Emissions: A Practical Case Study in Iran

Abstract

The use of renewable-based resources, such as wind energy, for generating electrical energy has been growing in recent years due to several reasons including free and infinite resources as well as their considerable impact on the reduction of fossil fuels consumptions and CO2 emissions. It is the purpose of this paper to investigate the effect of grid-connected large-scale wind farms in a region in Iran, on the reduction of natural gas consumptions in heat-cycle power plants and their related CO2 emissions as a practical case study. The wind farms under study comprise about 51% of the total grid connected capacity of wind generation in Iran. First, the total energy yielded by the considered wind farms are extracted for a two-year period from April 2019 to March 2021 based on a detailed practical data and then, the impact of this renewable-based energy generation is studied on the reduction of natural gas consumption in a real gas-cycle power plant due to its practical fuel intake data. The financial revenue of savings in the natural gas intake is also estimated based on the two-year average international price of natural gas. Finally, the reduction of CO2 emission is calculated as the result of reduction in the natural gas consumption of the considered gas-cycle power plant. The results of this practical case study well demonstrate the effective role of wind farms energy generation on the reduction of fossil fuels consumption in heat-cycle power plants and thus, the significant reduction of CO2 emissions as one of the most crucial aspects of decarbonization plans.