Experience and prospect of wind power generation in Korea: Jeju Island case

Korean government has invested heavily in development and spread of renewable energy for last 10 years. As a result, numerous large-scale projects on renewable energy are currently being commissioned, with more planned for the near future. Among the renewable resources, wind powers are planned to be installed about total capacity of 2,250 MW until 2012. Since the wind profiles of Jeju Island are more favorable than mainland of Korea, many companies have shown interest in the wind power business at the Jeju Island. The approved wind power capacity reaches 250 MW, about 40% of total generation capacity of Jeju power system. However, the installation of wind turbines in a weak, small, isolated Jeju power system may cause some problems. This paper investigates the difficulties that can be confronted when driving large-scale wind power business in Jeju Island. They include absence of grid codes for the wind power interconnection and operation, lack of control system, and weak grid characteristics. Moreover, the maximum penetration limit of wind power in Jeju power system under these circumstance and its calculation procedures are presented. Then, various plans of Korean government to overcome ascertained obstacles and increase wind power penetration are presented. The power system operators of Korea try to establish the grid codes for wind farm and the bidirectional operation of second HVDC planned to be constructed in the year 2012. And plan to construct regional control system which wind farm and conventional generation are included in is going on in conclusion.