Wind Resource Drought Identification Methodology for Improving Electric Grid Resiliency

Essential to power systems operation and resilience is having sufficient generation in the system to supply demand plus transmission losses. With increasing penetration of wind power in electric grids, the variable nature of wind as a resource means that extended periods of abnormally low wind power availability (wind resource droughts) could compromise that system’s resilience. This paper presents a methodology for identifying wind resource droughts in electric grids. The methodology presented in this paper leverages hourly historic wind speed data from 1973 to 2022 with U.S. generator data from 2021 to determine historic wind power availability. The distribution of historic data is then used to help identify wind resource droughts. Examples are presented for states with high integration of wind generation in the United States such as California and Texas.