Grid connected wind plants

Ever since the first oil crisis in 1973, OECD countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, rich, developed countries) have been interested in wind power as a means of feeding electricity into distribution grids. As oil crises followed one another, this interest persisted and grew, enabling the wind energy sector to expand. This development in wealthy countries has been made possible by the obligation placed on electricity distributors to buy wind-generated electricity at prices that are remunerative for developers, well above average market prices. The difference between the purchase price from developers and the average market price is ultimately borne by the consumer.

In recent years, the premonition of a climate crisis resulting from the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, produced in part by the generation of electricity from fossil fuels, has heightened interest in wind-generated electricity, which is carbon-free.

What's more, the falling cost of wind power has led to this technology taking off in the countries of the South, where electricity production costs are often high.

Worldwide installed wind power capacity has risen from 10 GW in 1998 to 432 GW at the end of 2015, including 12 GW offshore. For several years now, wind power has been the fastest-growing technology worldwide, followed by solar power. 43.7% of installed capacity in Europe in 2014 was wind-powered (source: EWEA).

This lightning development has totally overshadowed the maintenance of ancillary activities in the field of mechanical wind pumping and autonomous wind power supplies (for isolated houses and boats).

This article deals only with the current implementation of wind-generated electricity for injection into distribution networks.

This is not, therefore, an exhaustive review of wind energy applications and technologies, but an analysis focused on the technologies implemented to :

• build wind turbines supplying electricity to the grid;

• prepare the installation of these wind turbines in wind farms;

• make the discontinuous and highly variable supply of wind-generated electricity compatible with normal grid operation.