This thesis tries to determine and analyse from a technical aspect the penetration of wind energy in the
island of Crete in Greece. Crete is an island with an autonomous electric grid and high wind energy
potential. The average wind speed is more than 7m/sec while in some areas; especially in the eastern
part, the annual average speed exceeds 10m/sec. The electricity cost produced by the conventional
power plants in Crete is quite high reaching 5 to 7 times the power production on the Mainland.
Considering also the environmental benefits the use of wind energy becomes an essential factor for
the sustainable development of the area. In 2003 almost 10% of the electricity produced in Crete was
from wind turbines located in the eastern part of the island. However it is recognised that electricity
produced by wind turbines can create some technical problems in the electric grid (such as stability
problems), typically due to the unpredicted, variable and non constant form of wind energy.
In this thesis the Cretan electric grid is simulated using Matlab software, in order to analyse the power
flows in this system. The power flow solution by both Newton-Raphson and Gauss-Seidel models was
developed in order to estimate the additional wind capacity that can be added to each one of the 23
buses in the Cretan electric grid. Furthermore other technical parameters such as the thermal limits of
the high voltage transmission lines and power losses were calculated.
By the followed analysis it was estimated that additional 11.7MW of wind energy can be added to the
existing Cretan electricity grid. This increase results in a maximum wind energy penetration, which
reaches the 12.8% of the total produced energy. This value is quite satisfying in comparison to the
present one that is 11.2%. Additionally, the production of 11.7MW by wind turbines provides a further
saving of CO2 emissions on the island (21,852 tonnes), due to the replacement of diesel generation.