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The remote region of Gaeltacht in the north-west of Ireland has
avery weak electricity infrastructure. This project has been designed
to demonstrate that wind energy can provide a significant contribution
to the region's power supply without causing undesirable fluctuations
in the grid.
Cronalaght wind farm
consists of five 600 kW Vestas wind turbines, with a rated capacity
of 3 MW. The high wind speeds have necessitated the use of V39-600
kW turbines, with blades 3 m shorter than those originally selected.
This will be the first demonstration of these types of turbines.
The grid in the region
is weak and there is a risk that in periods with low consumer load
and high wind power production, the output from the wind farm could
result in the grid voltage being outside acceptable limits. To overcome
this, the wind farm output power is limited depending onthe grid
voltage. To achieve this the project includesan innovative Voltage
Control Unit (VCU). This continuously monitors the voltage and adjusts the output from one or more of the turbines if the voltage gets close to the allowable limits for the grid.
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Contract No. WE/069/96/IE The turbine output can be adjusted by changing the pitch and speed, which limits the output power to the required value.
The wind farm was commissioned
in May 1997, and the VCU installed during October 1997.
The cost of the VCU was about 1.8% of the total project cost. Annual
net energy production from the turbines will be about 10 GWh. A
two year monitoring programme by Riso (Denmark) is underway. The
project has already received substantial publicity, with videos
and site visits, in particular in relation to the European Wind
Energy Conference held in Dublin in October 1997. |
