2016 IEEE Electrical Power and Energy Conference (EPEC)
Effect of Wind Turbine Parameters on Optimal DG
Placement in Power Distribution Systems
Majed Alotaibi, Student Member IEEE, Abdulaziz Almutairi, Student Member IEEE; M. M. A. Salama, Fellow IEEE
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3G1
m2alotai@uwaterloo.ca; a4almuta@uwaterloo.ca; msalama@uwaterloo.ca
Abstract The notion of the smart grid has led
stakeholders in the power industry to promote more efficient
technologies to the network. Distribution systems are a favorite
place to host most of these technologies including Renewable-
based distributed generation (DG). Wind Turbine Generators
(WTGs) in particular have proved their usefulness for
supplying a fair portion of power demand; however, the power
output of WTGs is mainly dependent on the stochastic nature
of the sites wind speed in addition to the design parameters of
WTGs. Furthermore, WTGs can only be suitably utilized when
their capacities and locations are optimized in such a way to
achieve certain goals. In this paper, the effect of wind
generator design parameters, namely cut-in, cut-out, and rated
wind speeds, on the problems of sizing and siting WTGs-based
DGs is addressed. The probabilistic optimization model is used
to minimize the systems annual energy losses, and the results
reveal that the design parameters of WTGs must be carefully
selected due to their strong effect on system losses and DG
locations and capacities.
Keywords DG placement, energy losses, wind turbine
parameters
I. INTRODUCTION
Power systems have undergone major changes over the
recent decades in the quest to provide reliable and economic
electricity services in a way that benefits all associated
parties. Achieving this goal involves the consideration of
power industry regulations, environmental policies,
advancements in technology, and utilization of sustainable
energies. Distributed generation (DG) is expected to be a
part of the solutions considered for the future. DG systems
are expected to provide numerous technical, economic, and
environmental benefits when they are properly located and
sized in the distribution systems [1]. From the technical
point of view, DGs can help in system reliability and quality
improvement, power loss reduction, and voltage stability
enhancement. The economic benefits that can be gained
from DGs appear in, for example, deferring the required
investments for system expansions and reducing cost
expenditures for the fixed spinning reserve. Utilizing
renewable DGs is increasing worldwide, aimed at reducing
carbon dioxide emissions CO2 and maintaining a safe and
healthy environment [2].
The first and second authors wish to acknowledge funding support
received from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Education to carry out this
work.
978-1-5090-1919-9/16/$31.00 2016 IEEE
Integration of DGs in distribution systems and
determining proper sites and sizes has attracted a large and
growing body of literature. This is, however, a challenging
optimization problem due to the involvement of different
objectives and sets of economic, operational, and technical
constraints. Accordingly, a variety of models and methods
have recently been showcased in numerous publications [3].
For example, the study presented in [4] focused on
determining the optimal DG locations in order to minimize
power losses by using the Tabu search technique.
Considering multiple DGs and load levels, the multi-
objective function has been mathematically modeled and
solved in [5] using mixed integer non-linear programming,
and the cost of losses was presented among the cost
functions. The work reported in [6] involved the
development of a deterministic optimization technique to
identify optimum locations and sizes of DGs so that total
planning cost is minimized. It is worth mentioning that most
of the optimization models have considered some practical
constraints, and these constraints vary from one application
to another; they include the thermal limit of the feeders, the
voltage at each bus, the maximum reverse power, short
circuit level, and other elements.
In spite of the many advantages of renewable DGs (e.g.,
Wind Turbine Generators (WTGs), their implementation
into a distribution system introduces various challenges and
makes the optimization problem further complex. This is
mainly due to the fact that the power output of a WTG is
variable, uncertain, and non-controllable, and wind power
output is extremely dependent on the characteristics of the
wind speed at a particular site. Besides this, the nonlinear
relationship between the power output of a WTG and the
wind speed at a site is represented by the characteristics of
the WTG when influenced by the cut-in, rated, and cut-out
speed. Some of the earlier studies used deterministic models
(e.g., a fixed wind profile or a capacity factor) to represent
the power output of WTGs and hence determine their
optimal locations and sizes [7, 8]. The major drawback of
deterministic techniques is that they fail to take into account
the stochastic nature of wind behavior, as wind speed is
highly variable. Alternatively, there is
a growing consensus in the literature for solving the location
 2016 IEEE Electrical Power and Energy Conference (EPEC)

and size problems of wind-based DGs by using multi-state
probabilistic models [9].
To the best of our knowledge, few or no studies have
offered a critical evaluation of the effect of wind design
parameters on wind-based DG allocation and sizing in
distribution systems. Therefore, this paper conducts several
case studies to illustrate the effect of different WTG design
parameters on the optimization of DG allocation and sizing.
A probabilistic optimization model to allocate and size
wind-based DGs while minimizing the total annual energy
losses (AEL) is used in this paper. The remainder of this
paper is structured as follows. Section II presents the
probabilistic wind model along with the formulation of the
optimization model. Section III describes the case studies,
and Section IV presents and compares the analyses and
results of the considered cases. Lastly, Section V concludes
the paper.
II. METHODOLOGY
B. Optimal number of WTGs and locations formulation
The objective function of the probabilistic optimal power
flow model is to determine and allocate the number of
WTGs that minimize AEL and maintain system security
constraints.
, 8760 (3)
where is the current flow in feeder ij, is the resistivity
of feeder ij, is the probability of occurrence of wind state
s, NF is total number of feeders, and T is the total number of
states.
Nodal active and reactive power constraints at each bus
in the system must be satisfied.

A. Probabilistic modeling of WTG output power

The probability distribution function (PDF) for the random , + , , , = , , cos + , , (4)
variable, which is wind speed in this case, will be generated
from the recorded historical data. Three successive years of
wind speed data for the site under investigation are collected
and analyzed so as to define the wind speed patterns. These , , = , , sin + , + , (5)
data are fitted to the most commonly used probabilistic
distribution function for wind speeds, the Weibull
distribution. The Weibull power density function is then where , is the rated wind power at bus i, , is the state
divided into multiple equal bands (states), where the wind output power, , is the annual average power
probability of each band is defined as follows: demand at bus i, is the magnitude of admittance matrix
element ( ), , is the state voltage magnitude of bus i,
( )= ( ). ( ) is the angle of admittance matrix element ( ), and , is
the state voltage angle of bus j.

Where are the starting and ending wind speed for
such band, respectively.
After the probability of each state is calculated, per-unit
wind output power for each state or band can be computed
as follows [9]:
All the current flowing in the feeders must be within the
thermal capability of the feeder, and all the bus voltages
must be kept within standard limits. These are formulated as
follows:
, (6)

0 0 , , (7)

( )= (2)

, = , + , 2 , , cos , , (8)

where , , are cut-in speed, rated speed, and cut-off One more constraint is added to represent the
speed of the WTG, respectively, ( ) is the output power discretization in rated WTG power. This constrains is shown
during state x, and is the average speed of state x. in (9):

It is worthwhile to note that wind speeds that have values , = (9)

lower than the cut-in speed of WTG and higher than cut-out
speed are treated as one single state, with a value equalling where M is an integer number and is the turbines rated
zero. Moreover, wind speeds that have values higher than the power.
WTG rated speed and lower than the cut-out speed are
treated as one state, with a value equal to the rated power.
 2016 IEEE Electrical Power and Energy Conference (EPEC)

III. CASE STUDIES

The system used in this study is the well-known 33-bus For all of the case studies presented in this paper, a
radial distribution system presented in [10]. The WTG with a capacity of 225kW was used [12]. Based on
configuration of the system is shown in Fig. 1. This system consideration of the ultimate objectives of this research,
consists of a sub-station with the capacity of 8MW which is seven case studies have been carried out, as shown in Table
connected at Bus 1, and a typical average system load I.
estimated to be 2.6MW. In this study, all connected loads
Table I SCENARIOS UNDER STUDY
are assumed to be residential. The hourly wind speed data WTG design parameters
for three successive years for the Waterloo site located in (kilometers/hour) The purpose of the study
the province of Ontario, Canada, were used [11]. The wind Cut-in Rated Cut-out
speed mean and standard deviation at this site are 14.7 and Benchmark to compare with
Base case 12 38 80
subsequent cases
9.12 km/hour respectively, and its fitted Weibull distribution Case 1 8 38 80
function is shown in Fig. 2. To study the effect of cut-in speed
Case 2 16 38 80
Case 3 12 34 80
To study the effect of rated speed
Case 4 12 42 80
Case 5 12 38 76
To study the effect of cut-out speed
Case 6 12 38 84

IV. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

Fig. 3 shows the AEL for the different cases under study. It
can be observed that the AEL changes significantly with the
change of cut-in wind speed (i.e. Case 1 and 2). The AEL
decreases 18.5% compared to the base case, as the cut-in
speed is reduced by 4km/h. In contrast, when the cut-in
speed is increased by 4km/h, the AEL increases by 13%.
Comparing Case 1 with Case 2, the AEL at the cut-in speed
of 8km/h is 1.4 times than at the cut-in speed of 16km/h.

425
401.3
400
Total Annual Energy Losses (MWh)

375 355 359 355 355

352.7
350

325

300 289.5

275

250

225

200
Base case case 1 case 2 case 3 case 4 case 5 case 6
Figure 1 IEEE 33 Bus System
Figure 3 The annual energy losses for different case studies

It can be seen from the results obtained for Cases 3 and 4

0.05
0.045
that the change in AEL is very small with respect to change
0.04
in rated wind speed, and that the rated wind speed has a
0.035
much smaller effect on AEL than the cut-in wind speed.
Probability f(x)

0.03
AEL decreases by 1.7% as the rated speed increases from 34
0.025
km/h to 42 km/h. These results indicate that cut-in speed
0.02 affects AEL more strongly than the rated wind speed. The
0.015 justification for these results is that most wind speed data at
0.01 this site concentrate near the cut-in speed, but they are quite
0.005 far from the rated wind speed (see Fig. 2).
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
The results obtained from Cases 5 and 6 reveal that the
Wind speed (km/h) cut-out speed parameter has almost no effect of AEL. The
Figure 2 Probability distribution function of the historical wind speed data cut-out speed parameter is usually designed to be quite
 2016 IEEE Electrical Power and Energy Conference (EPEC)

large, and the probability of the wind speed at any particular V. CONCLUSION
site being higher than the cut-out speed is usually very low. The studies described in this paper were conducted to
illustrate the effects of WTG design parameters on the
The number and allocations of WTGs are determined problem of DG placement for loss reduction. Overall, the
based on the optimal value that can be achieved for the results show that the cut-in speed parameter is clearly a
objective function while satisfying the identified constraints. major factor that affects AEL and the number and allocation
Table III lists details about the number of WTGs and their of WTGs, followed by the rated wind speed, which has a
candidate locations. It is worth mentioning that only the less significant effect. The cut-out speed parameter has
buses selected by the optimization model as the best places almost no effect on either the annual AEL or the number or
to install WTGs are displayed in Table II. allocation of WTGs. The reason for these findings is that the
cut-out speed parameter is usually designed to be quite
From the results of Case 2, when the cut-in speed is large, and the probability of the wind speed exceeding this
reduced from 12 to 8 km/h, it can be seen that the number parameter is very small. Together, these results provide
and locations of WTGs remain unchanged from the base important insights into the need for careful selection of the
case, although the annual energy loss is significantly design parameters of WTGs (namely, cut-in and rated speed
decreased. In contrast to the previous case, the number and parameters) in order to determine the proper installation of
locations of WTGs change considerably as the cut-in is WTGs in a distribution system. Also, the same analysis
increased from 12 to 16 km/h. This is mainly due to the holds true for any other objective functions, such as
nature of the optimization problem, as well as to the strong minimization of total system cost and maximizing system
relationship between the cut-in speed parameter of the WTG reliability, and these are areas that should be considered for
and the wind speed data. Likewise, the results obtained from future investigation.
Cases 3 and 4 change accordingly with the change in rated
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