The Annex 25 to the IEA Wind Implementing Agreement was approved at ExCo 56 in September 2005 and run for three years 2006–2008. The Extension for a phase two, 3 years 2009-2011 has been approved at ExCo 62 In september 2008. New participants are welcomed in 2009, please Contact the operating agent Hannele Holttinen. The next meeting is Scheduled in October, 12-13, 2009.

The ultimate objective is to provide information to facilitate the highest economically feasible wind energy penetration within electricity power systems worldwide. This task supports this goal by analysing and further developing the methodology to assess the impact of wind power on power systems. The Task will establish an international forum for exchange of knowledge and experiences related to power system operation with large amounts of wind power. The challenge is to create coherence between parallel activities with Transmission System Operators other R&D Task work.

The participants will collect and share information on the experience gained and the studies made up to and during the task. The case studies will address different aspects of power system operation and design: reserve requirements, balancing and generation efficiency, capacity credit of wind power, efficient use of existing transmission capacity and requirements for new network investments, bottlenecks, cross-border trade and system stability issues. The main emphasis is on the technical operation. Costs will be assessed when necessary as a basis for comparison. Also technology that supports enhanced penetration will be addressed: wind farm controls and operating procedures; dynamic line ratings; storage; demand side management DSM etc.

The task work has started with a state-of-the-art report collecting the knowledge and results so far. The task will end with developing guidelines on the recommended methodologies when estimating the system impacts and the costs of wind power integration. Also best practice recommendations will be formulated on system operation practices and planning methodologies for high wind penetration.

Progress in 2006-2008

The international forum for exchange of knowledge and experiences has been established through the 7 meetings organised in 2006-2008.

The State-of-the-art report has been published in VTT Working Papers pdf publication series in October, 2007.

A paper describing the Task and outlining the on-going activities in participating countries was written in February 2006 and presented as a poster in EWEC2006 and NWPC2006. A paper describing the results of existing wind integration work was written in September 2006 and presented in Global Wind Power Conference GWPC2006 Adelaide 18-22th September and Delft workshop for offshore and large scale integration 25th October. Presentations of the first results were also given by the OA in UWIG seminar, Oklahoma, October 2006; EWEA Grid Conference, Brussels, November, 2006 and IEA workshop, Paris, December, 2006.

A collaborative journal article on “Wind integration experience from areas with large penetrations” coordinated by Lennart Söder, KTH was presented at Nordic wind power conference May 2006, with experience from Germany, Denmark and Sweden. It was further expanded to a journal article with added experience reported from Ireland and New Mexico, US, and published in IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, early 2007.

A special Integration studies session was organised by Task 25 in EWEC, May 2007. A conference paper of Task 25 to EWEC2007 and NWPC'2007 summarized the results so far. A presentation at IEA workshop as well as the Finnish wind power conference were given by the OA in May 2007. Task 25 results were presented in IEA RETD&ENARD workshop, Leuven, June 2007 by UK participant Goran Strbac and Austrian Wind Power Conference October, 2007 by German participant Bernhard Ernst.

Author: Hannele Holttinen, Operating Agent Representative, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Finland.