Analysis of Renewable Energy into Tamilnadu Grid

The demand for electricity is increasing day by day and the power
utilities are now exploring various alternatives for increasing the generation of
electricity to meet the increased demand. Increasing the generation of electricity
using fossil fuels leads to increased atmospheric pollution mainly due to the
emission of carbon dioxide (CO2). Minimization of green house effect by reducing
CO2 and other emissions is a challenging issue today. Alternate energy sources, on
the other hand, are gaining popularity over the conventional energy sources as they
are environment friendly. Renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind
energy, help in reducing the dependence on fossil fuels thereby reducing the green
house gas emissions. Wind energy generation systems are becoming more popular,
nowadays, as they are the most competitive and environment friendly. Large
numbers of wind turbines are erected around the world and many projects are
under progress. In 1980s, wind turbine power ratings were few tens of kilowatts
only whereas today, wind turbine ratings are in megawatts.

The main difficulty associated with the wind power generation is that it is
not reliable due to its intermittent nature. This does not permit us to have a reliable
and continuous source of energy when they are used independently. The
fluctuating energy produced by these sources lead to adverse effects on the quality
of power supplied to the consumers. Lot of research is happening in this
challenging issue of improving the quality of power supplied by these sources.
 Wind energy sector in India has registered an impressive growth and
expansion during 2014-15. According to the Ministry of Non Conventional Energy
Sources (MNES), power generation from wind energy, in India, has now crossed
23447.5 MW, making it the fifth largest wind power generating nation after China,
USA, Germany and Spain. More than 95 percent of total wind energy generation
in the country is from just five states located in southern and western India i.e.
Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Table 1.1
provides state wise installed wind power capacity and growth rate of wind energy
in India up to March 31st 2015. It clearly indicates that these five states are the
leaders in wind energy generation while other states like Madhya Pradesh,
Rajasthan and Kerala are also quickly increasing their capacity.

The highest wind energy installed state is Tamil Nadu, with the total
installed capacity of 7,455 MW till March 31, 2015 which is approximately 35% of
the total wind power generation in India. Tamil Nadu has the advantage of
location, where both the Southwest Monsoon and Northeast monsoon 'tunnel'
through the Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar, making it a high wind speed potential
zone. A capacity addition of 6000 MW of wind energy installation is targeted
under the 12th five year plan.

As the generation of electricity using wind energy is increasing at a

faster rate, the integration of wind power into the grid is increasing gradually.
Thus, wind power cannot be treated as an "unimportant" power source anymore, as
its contribution is very high. In India, wind farms are focused in rural areas, where
transmission and distribution grids tend to be very weak and often lack the capacity
to tie-in large amounts of wind power. The insufficient capacity of the power
system can cause large variations in voltage and power outage. Inadequate grid
capacity and equipment can affect both the efficiency and operation of the wind
turbines.

Table 1.1 State wise installed wind power capacity and growth rate of
wind energy in India

Growth rate
Wind power
State during 2014-
capacity
2015
Tamil Nadu 7455.2 185.5
Gujarat 3645.4 190.7
Maharashtra 4450.8 350.5
Karnataka 2638.4 320.1
Rajasthan 3307.2 523.5
Madhya Pradesh 879.7 456.3
Andhra Pradesh 1031.4 285.2
Kerala 35.1 0.0
Other 4.3 0.0
Total 23447.5 2311.8

The operation of wind turbines is also affected by disturbances in the

grid, frequency variations, and voltage imbalances. Wind power output is reduced
during disturbances because turbines go off-line in an outage. Frequency
fluctuations lead to changes in rotor speed, subsequently impacting performance
and power output. Voltage imbalances may cause the turbine to trip off-line and
lead to decrease in efficiency of wind generators. The weak Indian power grid can
magnify these problems, making the development difficult for rural areas with lack
of grid capacity.
 Increase in the wind power penetration into the grid network at
Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu leads to serious issues such as tripping of
generators, power quality issues, power evacuation and sudden increase in the
turbine speed. Industries, which are directly utilizing the wind energy sources, are
facing many difficulties such as oscillation in the turbine speed, mal-operation of
power electronics fed drives and unwanted tripping of protective relays. Power
quality issues are the most important factors which may affect the performance of
industrial loads. The only way to minimize such problems faced by the industries,
is to monitor the power quality of the wind power generation before it is integrated
into the grid.

International Electro technical Commission have provided the guidelines for

measurement of power quality at the wind turbine. The international standards are
developed by the working group of technical committee-88 of the International Electro-
technical Commission (IEC).

The standard norms related to the present work are

1. IEC 61400-21: Wind turbine generating system, part-21. Measurement

and Assessment of power quality characteristics of grid connected wind
turbine.

2. IEC 61400-4-15: Measuring procedure of flicker using flicker meter.

3. IEC 61400-12: Wind turbine performance

4. IEC 61400-13: Wind turbine-measuring procedure in determining the

power behaviour.

5. IEC 61400-36: Harmonic analysis

6.
 POWER QUALITY ISSUES AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

The various power quality events occurring at the wind farm substation along
with the causes and their consequences are discussed.
Figure 1.2 shows a classification of different power quality issues.

Figure 1.2 Classification of different power quality phenomena