Decarbonization of electricity industry for the goal of sustainability success has resulted in large investment in alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, biomass. Although these energy resources are sustainab...Decarbonization of electricity industry for the goal of sustainability success has resulted in large investment in alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, biomass. Although these energy resources are sustainable and have the potential of reducing the world carbon foot print, there are costs associated with its utilization. In recent time, electricity from alternative energy sources like wind and solar are not cost competitive with electricity from the conventional power plant. This paper is aimed at investigating the optimum investment in a typical wind farm project using a TSA （time series analysis） alongside simple economic tool, AAP （annual annuity payment） model. This study involves a year round analysis of （8,760h） at different wind farm capacity connected to a 132/33kV DS （distribution system）. It also focused on digressing from the technical and environmental benefits to financial assessment of increasing wind generation capacity in the DS. Indeed, this development presents a risk of investment to the stakeholders which necessitates proper scrutiny and to ensure profitability of the venture. The level of capital cost along with operation and maintenance （OM） costs are either financed by private or public sectors on wind farm with the sole aim of achieving the ROI （return-on-investment）. The results obtained from this study shows the possible ROI is not proportional to the wind capacity invested. Also, a sensitivity analysis conducted revealed the profit derived from wind farm is more responsive to the investment/capital cost and the price at which the electricity is being sold.展开更多
文摘Decarbonization of electricity industry for the goal of sustainability success has resulted in large investment in alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, biomass. Although these energy resources are sustainable and have the potential of reducing the world carbon foot print, there are costs associated with its utilization. In recent time, electricity from alternative energy sources like wind and solar are not cost competitive with electricity from the conventional power plant. This paper is aimed at investigating the optimum investment in a typical wind farm project using a TSA （time series analysis） alongside simple economic tool, AAP （annual annuity payment） model. This study involves a year round analysis of （8,760h） at different wind farm capacity connected to a 132/33kV DS （distribution system）. It also focused on digressing from the technical and environmental benefits to financial assessment of increasing wind generation capacity in the DS. Indeed, this development presents a risk of investment to the stakeholders which necessitates proper scrutiny and to ensure profitability of the venture. The level of capital cost along with operation and maintenance （OM） costs are either financed by private or public sectors on wind farm with the sole aim of achieving the ROI （return-on-investment）. The results obtained from this study shows the possible ROI is not proportional to the wind capacity invested. Also, a sensitivity analysis conducted revealed the profit derived from wind farm is more responsive to the investment/capital cost and the price at which the electricity is being sold.
