Warum Windenergie keine konventionellen Kraftwerke ersetzt und ein leistungsfähiges Übertragungsnetz benötigt

The amount of wind power installed in Austria has tripled over the year 2003. At present 430 MW are in operation and about 1000 MW of further projects are known. At the end of 2004 about 700 MW are assumed to be in operation. Due to the fluctuation of wind, the limited forecast possibilities and the resulting volatile generation, wind power plants cannot replace conventional power plants but may give an ecologically valuable contribution to the existing generation. Regarding the security of supply wind power plants cannot grant ongoing generation and supply all over the time. This results in the need for additional operation of conventional power plants (e.g., pump storage power plants) to provide the necessary real time balance between generation and consumption of electrical energy at any time (balancing energy). A powerful transmission grid is required for this interaction as well as for the transportation of generation surpluses from large wind parks to the consumers. This advantageous combination of a “wind and water” system cannot be fully exploited due to severe bottlenecks within the Austrian transmission grid. This article shall highlight the new challenges in the operation of the transmission grid and the control area of Verbund-Austrian Power Grid due to the wind energy. Furthermore, an integrated planning approach for the energy system, considering all aspects from generation, transmission and distribution is urgently needed.