Size of a distributed electrical storage for a rural area with a wind farm

Abstract

Increasing the share of renewable energies in Germany is one of the current social challenges in the context of the energy transition. However, due to the volatility of renewable energy sources also storage systems are needed to avoid grid overload and ensure a stable power supply. In this article the influence of the integration of a wind farm on the optimal storage capacity of a decentralized electrical storage system for a rural area in Germany is determined. For this purpose, different simulations of the municipality’s power flows, with and without the wind farm, are carried out and a method is introduced to calculate the optimal storage capacity based on an objective function. It is also described how the operational properties of the storage change depending on the integration of wind energy systems. The simulations show that the determined optimal storage size for the municipality with and without the integration of the wind farm are almost equal. Even in combination with a further expansion of wind power units the optimal storage capacity only increases slightly while the utilization is maximized.