Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Computing Methodologies and Communication (ICCMC 2019)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP19K25-ART; ISBN: 978-1-5386-7808-4
Capacity factor of wind turbine system based on
different power curves and Weibull distribution
parameters.
Surbhi Walia
Department of Electrical Engineering
National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra
Kurukshetra,India
surbhiwalia1990@yahoo.com
Abstract — The wind energy is a renewable energy source
that is stochastic in nature. These systems are different from
conventional power generating system in a sense that they
don’t use conventional fossil fuel for power generation. They
rely upon the energy of the wind to generate electricity. In this
paper, capacity factor of wind energy system based on power
curve and Weibull parameters for different wind turbines with
different specifications under same operating conditions are
estimated for selection of wind turbines for better
performance. The estimation of capacity factor is essential to
set up new wind energy system or to update old system.
Keywords: wind energy system, Weibull Distribution, scale
coefficient , shape coefficient , capacity factor, power output of
wind turbine.
I. INTRODUCTION
Conventional generating systems are based on the fossil
fuels which are non renewable and exhaustible source of
energy. The major disadvantage of using these systems is
the high level of pollution produced by these fuels and these
fuels shall not be available to continue the process of
generation in future. At present, the main focus is on the
utilization and development of renewable sources of energy
like wind and sun.
The power output from a wind turbine depends upon the
wind speed profile of a particular site. To harness the
electrical energy from wind, the wind speeds should be
within certain limits i.e. Cut-in and cut-out speed of wind
turbine [1,2,3,5,6,10,11].The electrical power generated by
wind turbine is divided into three sections. Section 1 can be
expressed in terms of an instantaneous wind velocity
between cut-in and rated wind speed , section 2 is constant
for the range of wind velocities between rated wind speed
to cut out wind speed and section 3 is zero beyond the cut
out wind speed [1,2,3]. The wind speed is dynamic in nature
and it can be expressed in terms of probability of its
occurrence. The probability of occurrence of wind speed is
expressed by mathematical function named as Weibull
distribution function and its two parameters. There are many
methods described by various authors to determine two
parameters of Weibull distributions in their papers such as
empirical method by Lysen ,empirical method, modified
maximum likelihood method, maximum likelihood method,
energy pattern factor method, graphical method
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K.S. Sandhu
Department of Electrical Engineering
National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra
Kurukshetra,India
kjssandhu@rediffmail.com
least square method [2,7,8,9].Out of these various methods,
three methods are discussed in this paper. The performance
of wind energy system in terms of energy output can be
evaluated by performance parameter called as capacity
factor. It is basically required for the comparison among
different wind turbine systems for the selection of better and
reliable wind turbine[10,11,12].
Section 2 represents the equation required to extract the
power generation of wind energy system. Section 3
represents the study of Weibull distribution for wind
velocity and thereby determining its parameters using three
different methods. Section 4 represents different methods to
estimate the capacity factor based on three different power
curve models and Weibull distribution. [10,11]. Capacity
factor of three different turbines operating under same
operating conditions is calculated for selection of turbines
for a particular location.
II. MODELING OF WIND ENERGY SYSTEM
The power generated by a wind turbine varies based on
multiple factors like its design, rating of wind turbine ,shape
coefficient (k) of Weibull distribution of wind speed, scale
coefficient (c) of Weibull distribution and hub height of
wind turbine.
The equation for calculating the power generation by wind
turbine for different wind velocities as shown below
[1,2,3,6,10,11].
𝑝𝑖(𝑣) 𝑣𝑖 ≤ 𝑣 ≤ 𝑣𝑟
𝑃(𝑣) = 𝑝𝑟   (1)
𝑣𝑟 ≤ 𝑣 ≤ 𝑣𝑜
0 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑤𝑖𝑠𝑒
where
vr = rated wind velocity.
vi = cut in wind velocity.
vo = cut out wind velocity.
pr = rated power of wind turbine
pr is a function of wind velocity. It can be taken as linear
function or polynomial function of degree 2 ,3 etc.
There are Three categories of wind turbines on the basis of
size and rated power as following[13].:
Large turbines(above 250 kW)
Intermediate turbine(10kW to 250 kW) and
Small turbines(below 10kW).
1135
 Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Computing Methodologies and Communication (ICCMC 2019)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP19K25-ART; ISBN: 978-1-5386-7808-4

The specifications of three different wind turbines used in 𝑐=

ῡ
(3b)
this paper for the selection of wind turbine for a particular ( )

location are as shown in table1.

Where Γ(x) is gamma function
TABLE 1. SPECIFICATION OF DIFFERENT WIND TURBINE.
TURBINES pr vi vr vo Γ(x) =∫ exp(−𝑡) 𝑡 𝑑𝑡 (3c)
V-100 2000 3 12 22
1.2 Energy Pattern factor method
V-110 2000 3 11.5 20
The energy pattern factor method for calculating k and c
S-97 2100 3.5 11 20 uses the energy pattern factor or power density parameter.
Energy pattern is the fraction of cubic mean speed and the
III. WEIBULL DISTRIBUTION AND ITS PARAMETERS cube of mean wind speed. [7,8,9]
Weibull distribution represents statistical distribution of
wind speed. It is often used as a tool to predict frequency of 𝑒𝑝𝑓 = (4a)
occurrence of the wind speeds for any given region. It is an
extensively used method to determine the tentative potential Weibull parameters k and c can be calculated by using
of wind energy in that area. This probability density equation (4a).
function is expressed with the help of only two parameters .
𝑘 =1+ (4b)
that is the shape coefficient ‘k’ which is dimensionless; and
the scale coefficient ‘c’ that is expressed in m/sec units.
Wind speed probability density function denoted as f(v) and ῡ = 𝑐. Γ 1 + (4c)
is calculated using the following expression.[1,7,8].

𝑓(𝑣) = 𝑒 (2) 1.3 Empirical method of Lysen

Shape coefficient ‘k’ along with the scale coefficient ‘c’ can
Where be calculated using the empirical method given by Lysen
wind velocity denotes as v , where the ‘k’ and ‘c’ value can be calculated by following
Weibull wind speed probability function denotes as 𝑓(𝑣). equation as[8,9]:

.
The mean wind speed (ῡ) is expressed as equation 2a: 𝑘= (5a)
ῡ
.
𝑐 = ῡ 0.568 + (5b)
ῡ= ∑ 𝑣𝑖 (2a)
Table 2 : shows the measured value of Weibull parameters
for and commuted values of Weibull distribution using different
Arithmetic mean, m is equal to one. methods at the site i.e. Tamil Nadu.
Root mean square,m is equal to two.
Cubic mean cube, m is equal to three. TABLE2: COMPUTED WEIBULL PARAMETERS K AND C AT
80m HEIGHT. MEAN WIND SPEED=7.989 M/S
WEIBULL Measured EM by
Standard deviation (𝜎) is expressed as equation 2b: PARAMETERS value
EM EPFM
Lysen
. K 2.070 2.123 2.268 2.123
𝜎= ∑ (𝑣𝑖 − ῡ) (2b)
C 8.9740 9.0205 9.0185 9.0245
Three methods which have been used to evaluate the two
Weibull wind speed distribution parameters are as
following: IV. CAPACITY FACTOR
Capacity factor is a part of average power output by a
1.1 Empirical method generating system to the peak power or rated power of the
A special case of the moment method is the empirical generator. Capacity factor of wind turbines depend on the
method. In case of this approach, the mean wind speed and specifications of Wind Turbine which include rated wind
the standard deviation of wind speeds are used for velocity, cut in wind speed, cut out wind speed and finally
calculating shape coefficient ‘k’ and scale coefficient ‘c’ the actual wind speed at the site. Capacity factor can be
[7,8,9]. calculated using equation 6 [1,10,11,12].
It is defined by

.
𝑐𝑓 = (6)
𝑘= (3a)
ῡ
𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 = ∫ 𝑝(𝑣) ∗ 𝑓(𝑣)𝑑𝑣 (7)
Where cf is capacity factor of wind energy system

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 Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Computing Methodologies and Communication (ICCMC 2019)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP19K25-ART; ISBN: 978-1-5386-7808-4

4.1 Method 1: Capacity factor using linear power curve Expression of capacity factor based on quadratic power
model. curve of wind turbine is stated by using equations (2),(6),(7)
and(10) as following:
Linear Power curve: There is a linear relation between
power output of system and wind velocity at the site as
shown in figure 1. The power output is a fraction of rated 𝑐𝑓 = −𝑒 + . . Γ {𝛾 , −
power as equation 8.
𝛾 , (11)
𝑝(𝑣) = 𝑝𝑟. ,𝑣 ≤ 𝑣 ≤𝑣 (8)
Where 𝛾 is incomplete gamma function.
where v is the instantaneous wind speed
4.3Method 3: Capacity factor using general power curve
FIGURE 1: LINEAR POWER CURVE OF WIND ENERGY model.
SYSTEM General Power curve: It can be expressed as a polynomial
of order k. The relationship between output of the system
LINEAR POWER CURVE and instantaneous wind speed is polynomial of shape
2500 coefficient ‘ k’ as shown in figure 3.
2000
POWER

1500 𝑝(𝑣) = 𝑝𝑟. 𝑣 ≤𝑣≤𝑣 (12)

1000
500 FIGURE 3: GENERAL POWER CURVE OF WIND ENERGY
SYSTEM FOR K=2.676
0
GENERAL POWER CURVE
0 10 20 30 3000
k>2
wind speed(m/sec)
2000
POWER

The capacity factor of wind energy system based on linear

power curve can be calculated by using equations (2),(6),(7) 1000
and (8) as :
0
𝑐𝑓 = 𝑒 −𝑒 −𝑒 (9) 0 5 10 15 20 25
WIND SPEED(m/sec)
4.2 Method 2: Capacity factor using quadratic power curve
model. Capacity factor based on general power curve of wind
Quadratic Power curve: the relationship between output turbine is expressed as equation 13 by using equations
power and the wind speed is non linear polynomial of (2),(6),(7) and(12):
degree 2 as shown in figure 2. It is quadratic in nature as
stated in equation 10.
𝑐𝑓 = −𝑒 (12)
𝑝(𝑣) = 𝑝𝑟. 𝑣 ≤𝑣≤𝑣 (10)

where v is instantaneous wind speed at site. TABLE 3: CAPACITY FACTOR OF DIFFERENT TURBINES
WITH DIFFERENT SPECIFICATIONS UNDER SAME
FIGURE 2: QUADRACTIC POWER CURVE OF WIND ENERGY OPERATING CONDITIONS
SYSTEM MEAN WIND SPEED AT SITE-1=7.989m/s (TAMIL NADU)
CAPACITY CAPACITY CAPACITY
QUADRATIC POWER CURVE S.n TURBIN FACTOR FACTOR FACTOR
2500 o. ES METHOD-1 METHOD-2 METHOD-3
(%) (%) (%)
2000
POWER

1500 1 V-100 36.58 43.34 42.85

1000
500 2 V-110 45.74 45.46 45.00
0
0 10 20 30
3 S-97 45.37 46.86 46.48
wind speed(m/sec)

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 Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Computing Methodologies and Communication (ICCMC 2019)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP19K25-ART; ISBN: 978-1-5386-7808-4

V. CONCLUSION: using wind energy turbines for electricity generation in north of

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