Regional Impact Assessment of Monsoon Variability on Wind Power Availability and Optimization in Asia

Recent developments have emphasized the global impacts of climate change and have renewed commitments in renewable energy and energy meteorology. Wind energy depends largely on prevailing meteorological conditions on both local and large scales, thus, wind power optimization should aid its assessment and development. This study uses ERA-Interim daily data from 1979 to 2014 to investigate the impact of the East Asian Monsoon on wind power in Asia. Wind power increase in the Bay of Bengal region as wind vectors strengthened from winter (DJF, December-January-February) to summer (JJA, June-July-August), while the predominant direction shifted to southwesterly. The influence of the South China Sea on South East Asia resulted in increased wind power that peaked in winter. Probability distribution functions for four sub-regions revealed higher probabilities of relatively lower wind speeds in JJA, except for the South East region, where most probable wind speeds were reached in winter. The capacity factor also varied by region and by season. Power generation was lowest in JJA for all the regions except the South West. The South East region also had the highest power generated over the domain. This variation of wind power impacts the amount of energy that must be supplied by non-wind sources, termed Demand NetWind (DNW). Knowledge of DNW fluctuations thus becomes an important consideration for optimization of power plants, grid networking and reliability, and energy markets.