Analysis of Energy Curtailment and Capacity Overinstallation to Maximize Wind Turbine Profit Considering Electricity Price–Wind Correlation

This paper proposes a strategy of using wind energy curtailment and capacity overinstallation to increase the profit of wind turbine (WT) installations in a local grid, accounting for the correlation between the local wind power production and system electricity price. It is demonstrated that the market value of a local wind power production in Denmark would be overestimated by 11% if the average electricity price is used without considering the price-wind correlation. A first-order relation is developed to quantify the correlation between the electricity price and local wind power production to evaluate the market value and the expected revenue of the wind power. Furthermore, in the analyzed cases of a local WT installation, compared to the case with no curtailment, the profits are increased by up to 46% through 29% of energy curtailment and 113% of capacity overinstallation, when the slope of the price-wind relation is 100 €/MWh. It is also verified that the approximated analytical solutions give accurate results of the optimal curtailment level.