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• Final Report - Summary
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This study has identified a number of areas where additional work will assist in further assessing the issue of integrating wind energy into the New Zealand electricity supply system.

1. Develop a wind speed dataset for use in more detailed and more accurate studies around large scale wind energy.
2. Investigate the impact of large scale wind integration and current trends in wind turbine technology on the ability of the New Zealand supply system to provide sufficient reserve capacity in the event of a sudden drop in system frequency.
3. Develop a consistent set of connection standards for wind farms which anticipate a much larger installed wind energy base.
4. Consider what issues might create barriers to the development of smaller wind farms in many, diverse locations, with a view to obtaining the greatest possible geographical dispersion in the development of wind farms.
5. Develop appropriate wind farm output forecasting methods and related market rules to ensure that the market and the System Operator have the information they need to plan ahead to cover the variability of wind farm output on a national and regional basis.
6. Assess the impact of large scale wind energy integration on dry year security of supply.

In addition, the study has raised a number of related issues considered worthy of consideration by the industry:

• Determine if an additional reserve service should be scheduled to cover large "wind events" such as storms which could shut down a number of wind farms within a short period (or alternatively, investigate reorganising the existing continuum of reserve services).
• Assess the potential for more significant deviations in frequency away from 50 Hz with high levels of wind penetration.
• Undertake a study of the power flowing on grid lines around the Manawatu wind farm cluster to determine how this concentration of wind farms might affect the occurrence of line constraints.
• Undertake a study of the impact of high levels of wind penetration on the ability of the grid to maintain stable operation during and after grid events (e.g. an under frequency event).
• Consider the potential to introduce rules allowing combinations of wind and hydro or wind and thermal generation to make offers into the electricity market in "blocks".
• Consider changes in the market rule to require all plant to be offered in if it is reasonably available to run. The purpose of this potential rule change is to ensure the SO has information about all plant that is able to run to cover changes in the aggregate output of all wind farms, up to the end of the next day.