Analysis of Primary Distribution Area Expansion by Interconnecting a Wind Turbine

Reducing losses and improving voltage profile at the primary distribution level is becoming a challenging issue for distribution engineers because of their impact in electricity cost and the reliability of power networks. Modern distribution systems employ Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) to assist the local networks in terms of CO
₂
reduction, security of supply and power quality. The economic merits of DERs are numerous and they can include any generator type or energy-storage device connected to the distribution network. The generators in common use are wind turbines and photovoltaic systems. Several scientific contributions tackled recently the issue of connecting distribution energy resources to the primary systems along the main where they are most valuable. In this paper, a new generalized approach is developed to investigate the substation area expansion as affected by the interconnection of a wind turbine generating system at the opposite end of the primary main. Equations are derived based on the permissible voltage drop defined between the substation feed point and the last distribution transformer. Simulation results show that additional area coverage could be achieved by interconnection a wind turbine and a set of curves are drawn to be readily used for linear-dimension areas with uniform load densities.