Pricing distributed vs. centralized wind energy production

Several studies in recent years have investigated the merits of distributed vs. centralized wind energy production. These studies have focused on the effect of each on the transmission system, the infrastructure, on the politics of wind energy, on economic development for the state, and so on. Few studies, however, have focused on the effect of distributing the production of wind energy on the variability of the energy produced and its corresponding effect on the utility. In this paper, the value of electricity produced on a single wind farm is compared to a like amount of energy produced at 21 sites across North Dakota. It is shown that, although distributing the wind farms slightly reduces the variability of the energy produced, the savings to the utility are not large except for low demand days.