Performance analysis of wind turbines with different ratings for site matching

The energy extracting efficiency of a wind energy conversion system (WECS) depends on the suitability between wind turbine and wind energy conversion site. Capacity factor is a parameter widely used for matching wind turbines with a windy site with its high value desired. A high capacity factor ensures low cost of wind energy conversion system. In addition to this availability factor is another parameter of performance index of a wind turbine. A High value of availability factor indicates that wind turbine is operational most of the time. Availability factor is important because the decision of licensing agencies may depend on it in order to support the operational planning of the utility in the area. For a wind energy site these factors depends on speed ratings of the wind turbine i.e. cut-in speed, rated speed and cut-out speed. But these parameters have different effects on capacity factor and availability factor under different conditions. In this paper an attempt has been made to analyze such effect using fifteen wind turbines. Simulation results using MATLAB coding are found to be effective to propose few recommendations for the selection of wind turbines for variable wind speed zones.