Course Information / course syllabus

Objectives

The course Wind Power Systems aims at providing knowledge about the wide area of technology that is needed for persons working in the wind energy industry or related industry, such as generation or network companies.

At the end of the course you should be able to:

give some basic definitions (power curve, overall efficiency, Betz limit, stall and pitch regulation, etc.),
understand basic concepts, such as power in the wind, vertical distribution of wind speeds, power production and efficiency of a wind turbine, energy yield of a wind turbine from a site,
calculate energy yield of a wind turbine using actual wind speed measurements or approximate data,
describe the main wind turbine design concepts, main differences, advantages, disadvantages,
understand basic concepts from grid integration of wind turbines (voltage at the connection point, active, reactive power, strength of the grid, power quality of a wind turbine),
describe some effects that wind power has on power system operation and grid investments,
describe operation of hybrid systems (wind/diesel, wind/battery/diesel),
describe effects that wind power has on environment,
describe different economical support schemes for wind power.

In order to receive a higher grade (A-D), you will also need to show that you are able to

derive the important formulas studied during the course (power in the wind, Betz limit, etc.),
analyse and compare characteristics of different wind turbines,
present some control possibilities of wind turbines,
analyse wind conditions, and wind farm layout possibilities of the particular site,
perform basic calculations and analysis for grid connection of a wind turbine,
describe main aspects treated in the Grid Codes for connection of wind turbines and explain why those aspects are important.

Prerequisites

60 HP (basic mechanics, basic physics, complex numbers, numerical methods), and documented proficiency in English B or equivalent. Basic knowledge in Matlab programming is recommended.

Course Registration

You register through KTH's web registration system. Once logged in, you can access it via Courses / Registrations in the menu at the top or by following this link: https://www.kth.se/student/minasidor/registreringar/

Course Structure

The course includes 24 lectures, 4 exercise sessions and a five-hour examination. It is taught in English. Reading suggestions related to each lecture are given in the schedule on KTH Social.

During the course assistance hours, the teaching assistant will be available to assist the students with the assignments and/or project work, and review the completed home assignments.

Student Office

STEX – Studerandeexpeditionen
Osquldas väg 10
Phone 08-790 9086/7

Course Literature

No other course material than the lecture notes is compulsory but the following three books can be helpful to better understand parts of the course. The three books are available online for free from KTH's network through the links below. At home, you can use KTH's VPN service to have access to the books, see http://www.lan.kth.se/vpn/.

Home Assignments

You can work on five facultative assignments that should give you a better understanding. All assignments will be marked, but only the best four can give up to 2.5 bonus points each for the exam (for a maximum of 10 extra points in total). The bonus points are valid for the exam in May and the re-exam in August this year.

The assignments should be completed individually and a written report has to be submitted in the blue box marked EG2040, outside the student room at Teknikringen 33. If Matlab is used for completing the assignments the code should be included with the report. Solutions to the assignments must be well motivated and explained in detail. All equations used must be written clearly and all variables clarified. Figures and tables must be properly scaled and have labels and captions. Write your name and personal number on the front page of the assignments.

The assignments will be uploaded on KTH Social. The teaching assistant (see table below) will be available to answer questions during the scheduled course assistance hours.

Project

There is also a course project, where a group of 3 or 4 students makes a technical and economical pre-feasibility study for an imaginary wind farm project given real wind data, location, electrical network topology etc.

The project description and data will be uploaded on KTH Social.

Each project group will also receive a project report from another group to read. They should then act as an opponent by preparing some questions to ask about the report.

Upon completing of the project, the students are rewarded 1.5 hp (ECTS credits). The reports summarising the results of the project should be submitted in the blue box marked EG2040, outside the student room at Teknikringen 33 by 17.00, Friday, 26 April. In addition, an electronic copy (a pdf file) has to be submitted to camille.hamon@ee.kth.se.

Each project group must also register for a project presentation time through the electronic booking system at https://www.ee.kth.se/lab?course=EG2040. The presentations should be around 15 minute long. The possible dates for the presentations are:

Monday 12 May, 10:00 – 12:00
Tuesday 13 May, 10:00 – 12:00
Wednesday 14 May, 10:00 – 12:00
Thursday 15 May, 10:00 – 12:00
Friday 16 May, 13:00 – 15:00

Examination

Rules regulating written examinations at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) can be found on KTH Intranet.

The examination is a single-part examination. Upon completing the course work and passing the final exam, which is given twice a year, the students are awarded 6 hp (ECTS credits). The regular exam is on Friday 28 May, 14:00 – 19:00, and a re-examination will take place in August (details to be announced).

At KTH it is compulsory to register for examinations. In order to be eligible for a seat during the exam, the examinee must file this registration in advance.

Bookings must be made in advance through https://www.kth.se/student/minasidor/.

The final grade of the course is given according to the table below.

Total score: Exam (max 100 points) + Assignments (max 10 points)	Grade
0 – 57	F
58 – 60	FX (conditional fail)
61 – 68	E
69 – 76	D
77 – 84	C
85 – 92	B
93 – 110	A

Study trip

We plan to organize a 2-day study trip involving a visit to a wind farm and a visit to a company, e.g. a wind turbine manufacturer or a system operator. For the study trip in 2013 we went to Germany.

Participation in the study trip is not compulsory. Costs for the study trip are shared between the students and the department. Typically the costs for each student are around 500 – 700 SEK.

The study trip will take place on Monday – Tuesday, 5 – 6 May. The place will be announced later.

Information about registration will be given during the lectures.