The footprint of atmospheric turbulence in power grid frequency measurements

Abstract

Fluctuating wind energy makes a stable grid operation challenging. Due to the direct contact with atmospheric turbulence, intermittent short-term variations in the wind speed are converted to power fluctuations that cause transient imbalances in the grid. We investigate the impact of wind energy feed-in on short-term fluctuations in the frequency of the public power grid, which we have measured in our local distribution grid. By conditioning on wind power production data, provided by the ENTSO-E transparency platform, we demonstrate that wind energy feed-in has a measurable effect on frequency increment statistics for short time scales (< 1 sec) that are below the activation time of frequency control. Our results are in accordance with previous numerical studies of self-organized synchronization in power grids under intermittent perturbation and rise new challenges for a stable operation of future power grids fed by a high share of renewable generation.