Page 275 - Fluid Power Engineering

242 Chapter Eleven

all other generation facilities on the network will be able to deliver
power to the loads.
For small wind projects that are less than 20 MW, SGIR with ERIS
requires only the feasibility study for a fee of $1,000.
Irrespective of the size of a project, the cost of transmitting energy
from the wind farm to the interconnect point is the responsibility of the
entity requesting the interconnection, which is usually the wind farm
developer.Thecostofupgradestothetransmissionsystembeyondthe
interconnect point is allocated to the stakeholders, based on a variety
of laws. If a project is designated as a network resource service, then
the entity requesting interconnection service is reimbursed 50% of
the cost of network upgrades. ERIS projects are responsible for the
entire cost. In most cases, the network upgrades are performed by the
interconnecting utility.

Transmission Bottlenecks
Areas with high wind energy are not areas where people like to live.
So, after wind energy is harvested, it must be transported/transmitted
to population centers where most energy is used. Since few people live
in high-wind areas, the electricity grid is weak in those areas and the
predominant flow of electricity has to be reversed from flowing into
the region to flowing out of the region. For this and other reasons, sig-
nificant upgrades to the transmission infrastructure are required in
most countries to increase penetration of wind energy to significant
levels. In the United States, several studies have indicated 2,3 that wind
energy penetration levels of 20% into the electricity grid are feasible
without adversely impacting system reliability. In order to achieve this
level of penetration, transmission upgrades, voltage control devices
and dynamic voltage support will be required. Since transmission up-
grades are longer lead time projects, the planning and implementation
of the upgrades must precede wind projects.

SCADA Systems
Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system is the nerve
center for a wind plant that collects data from the wind farm and
controls the wind farm locally and remotely. In a typical wind farm,
all turbines, switchgears, meters, met-towers, and all other systems
that collect data and can be remotely controlled are connected using
fiber-optic cables to a central SCADA computer onsite. The SCADA
computer can be accessed from a remote computer. Most turbine man-
ufacturers provide a SCADA system that is best suited to work with
their turbines. However, manufacturer-independent SCADA systems
are common on large wind farms with multiple types of turbines. 20