Reduction of power fluctuation by distributed generation in micro grid

Renewable forms of energy such as wind power or photovoltaic energy are environmentally focused, but the fluctuation of the output power of such renewable forms of energy may cause excessive variation of the voltage or frequency of the grid. Increasing the amount of renewable energy would degrade the quality of the grid. Micro grids, in which dispersed power sources compensate variations in the generation of renewable energy, can expand the limits of installation of renewable forms of energy by maintaining the quality of the interconnected grid. This paper discusses the use of gas turbines to absorb power variations from wind generation and the loads. In order to control the output power, gas turbines must run under partial load, which results in lower efficiency. An evaluation of the micro grids is made with consideration of their efficiency, the installed capacity of wind power generation systems, and frequency stability for islanded operation. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 163(2): 22–29, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20462