Economic Aspects of Wind Power Generation in Developing Countries
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Power interruptions are a typical characteristic of national grids in developing countries.
Manufacturing, processing, refrigeration and other facilities that require a dependable
supply of power, and might be considered a small grid within the larger national grid,
employ diesel generators for backup. In this study, we develop a stochastic simulation
model of a very small grid connected to an unreliable national grid to show that the
introduction of wind generated power can, despite its intermittency, reduce costs
significantly. For a small grid with a peak load of 2.85 MW and diesel generating
capacity of 3.75 MW provided by two diesel generators, the savings from using wind
energy (based on wind data for Mekelle, Ethiopia) can amount to over a million dollars
per month. While the savings from deployment of wind turbines are enormous, the
variability of wind prevents elimination of the smaller diesel unit, although this unit
operates less frequently than in the absence of wind power.