Considering wind speed correlation of WECS in reliability evaluation using the time-shifting technique

Wind power is a very useful renewable energy source that is attracting consideration around the world due to its non-exhaustive nature and its environmental and social benefits. The correlation between multiple wind sites has a significant impact on the reliability of power systems containing wind energy conversion systems (WECS). Conventional methods cannot be directly applied to evaluate the reliability of WECS in the absence of comprehensive modeling techniques that recognize the correlation of the wind speeds at different wind farm locations. This paper proposes a model for power system reliability assessment that can consider the wind speed correlation and preserve the statistical characteristics of wind speeds, such as the mean and deviation of the wind speed time series (WSTS). A time-shifting technique is used to produce a new WSTS for a given correlation between two wind sites. The optimal shifted time at the two sites is determined using a linear interpolation technique. The probability distributions of the generated power and the system reliability indices with different degrees of correlation between the two sites are compared using two reliability test systems, i.e. the RBTS and the IEEE-RTS. The results show that the proposed method is useful in evaluating the reliability of WECS with correlation between two wind sites.