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.