Integration of wind power into hybrid power systems and economical analysis

Energy is one of the major component of the economical and social development. Since fossil fuels are both limited source and environmentally hazardous, people have turned towards usage of renewable and clean energy sources recently. Wind energy, with its applications, became prominent within the renewable energy sources. In the scope of this study, not only wind energy and electricity production by wind turbines are explained but also main challanges and adverse impacts of wind energy integration to the grid are explained. Hybrid renewable power plant which is a method used for reducing the disadvantages of wind energy integration to the grid was modelled for Başkent University by the HOMER software. According to the current load and wind-solar characteristics, the optimum configurations are pv-wind grid connected system and pv-wind-fuel cell stand alone system. Aiming of maximum renewable fraction and lowest cost, results gave wind – pv grid connected system is a clean and cost effective option with comparable energy costs which has 1,28 Million US Dollar for whole system and 0,107 USD per kWh, in addition to this the load is supplied 56% by PV, 24% by wind turbines and 20% by grid.