Sažetak
In Croatia, a huge private interest led to over 150 wind power plants projects earning preliminary energy approvals. However, to the beginning of the 2012, only 7 of these were realized yielding in total only 1.5% of the Croatian electricity consumption. The Croatian transmission system operator (HEP-TSO) is required to purchase all produced wind energy regardless of the demand or availability of other energy sources. Since wind is intermittent, and its variability does not correlate the energy demand, the sole operation of the electric system as well as operation of the other energy sources such as hydro or thermal need to adapt to the share of energy produced by wind power plants. Therefore, the use of predictive technologies for effective operational management of wind energy is the first of the essentials to reduce the cost of wind energy integration. The importance of accurate predictions is especially pronounced in mountainous and coastal regions of Croatia where most of the wind power plants are located in areas prone to strong gusty downslope windstorms (bora winds). HEP-TSO has access to the wind forecasts of the Meteorological and Hydrological Service, Croatia (DHMZ) designed for general public since 2009. The forecast is used for prediction of near-future wind energy and power production. By incorporating wind forecast into the energy management, HEP-TSO is able to i) regulate and balance reserves ii) reserve secondary and tertiary power, iii) control voltage and reactive power, iv) maintain the dynamical stability of the electric system.
Ključne riječi
wind energy; wind forecast