Abstract
In this paper, a case study of a wind power plant participating in the balancing market is presented and any potential revenue benefits are estimated. To make a representative performance assessment, an existing case for the frequency regulation market is selected, based on the pay-for-performance scheme of the US regional transmission operator Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (PJM). In this implementation, the wind power plant is being rewarded or penalized based on its signal-tracking capabilities, which are quantified by proper performance metrics. The fast response characteristics of the wind turbines allow for tracking even the faster automatic regulation signal (RegD from PJM). However, one of the significant challenges associated with providing such type of active power reference tracking on the wind farm scale is that different turbines have different responses and structural damage accumulation due to the local environmental conditions and the coupling due to wakes. The in-house developed, numerically efficient, wind farm simulation model "regfarm" is employed, allowing for a thorough analysis and revenue assessment under various operating regimes and weather conditions. Numerous time-domain simulations and historical pricing time series are used to quantify the expected revenue from market participation. Under the regulation market pay-for-performance compensation scheme, the simulated wind farm earned a lower revenue when compared to maximizing energy production. Depending on the configuration, the wind farm experiences between a 2.14% and a 2.38% decrease in revenue when providing 10% of the estimated available power to the regulation market. The wind farm is operated as both damage-ignorant and damage-aware, with no significant comparative loss in revenue when the damage distribution is considered.
