Powering Europe - European Wind Energy Association

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This section presents some findings from national
system studies into wind power integration. Figure 7
shows the typical different levels of wind power penetration
assumed system studies. The penetration level
is indicated in three different ways (metrics):
• As a percentage of gross annual electricity demand
(energy penetration)
• As a percentage of peak demand (capacity
penetration)
• As a percentage of minimum load plus available interconnection
capacity
The first way (energy penetration) is most commonly
measured in terms of percentage of energy (for example
GWh). Studies range from 10% up to 50%. Denmark
and Ireland are investigating high energy penetration
levels.
chApTEr 3 powersystemoperationswithlargeamountsofwindpower
The third definition gives an indication of how critical
the penetration level is. In situations where the
installed wind power capacity exceeds the minimum
load minus the available interconnection capacity
(over 100% in the figure below), there is a need for additional
integration solutions, such as demand shift,
adding interconnection capacity, looking for storage
solutions and so on. Typically these critical situations
are first reached in Ireland and UK (at comparable energy
penetration levels with other countries), mainly as
consequence of their “island” situation with relatively
low degree of interconnection (fewer neighbours than
other countries).
Further, it can be concluded from Figure 7 that results
exist from studies looking at energy penetration levels
up to 50%.
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