The initiative is a logical follow-up of the EWEA report ‘ Large s cale i ntegration of wind power in the European power s upply ’ published in 2005. The €1. 7m study is supported by a grant of 50% from the IEEA (Intelligent Energy Europe Agency) of the European Commission. The two- year project started on 1 November 2006.

The scope area for TradeWind is the full EU-27, and includes the synchronous zones UCTE, Nordel, GB and Ireland. The study will build further on the results of national (Germany , UK, Denmark, Spain, and Ireland) and supra-national wind integration studies (the Nordic area for example) and will seek answers to questions previous studies have raised. The wind power supply of Europe’s islands will also be addressed.

TradeWind will examine the effects of moving weather systems on wind power production and hence on intra- and cross-border power flows in the European High Voltage networks, based on realistic wind power expansion scenario’s (onshore and offshore) up to 2030. The study will formulate recommendations for policy development, market rules and interconnector allocation methods to support wind power integration. Although TradeWind includes technical aspects and modelling, the emphasis is on regulatory, institutional and market aspects of wind integration. The emphasis and scope are different from the EWIS Project - European Wind Integration Study - carried out by a consortium of European TSO’s in approximately the same timeframe. A close collaboration between EWIS and TradeWind is planned.

The direct outcome of TradeWind will be the necessary technical and economic arguments for any strategic decision linked to further developments of the European grid, generation , infrastructure, and the functioning of the internal electricity market, when large amounts of wind power are integrated in the European grids. These results are intended to be used by public authorities, European institutions, TSO’s, utilities, wind farm developers and operators, and wind turbine manufacturers.

The study is being carried out by an international consortium co-ordinated by EWEA. Project partners include VTT (Finland), Sintef (Norway), Garrad Hassan (UK), Risoe (Denmark), 3E (Belgium), Suez-Tractebel (Belgium), Dena (Germany) and KEMA (The Netherlands).

A dedicated project website will be created, and will be announced via the EWEA website. Progress results will be reported in technical publications, conference papers, seminars and dedicated workshops.

Examples of topics to be analysed by TradeWind:

- Effects of moving weather systems on cross border power flows – for different wind energy penetration scenarios
- Wind power balancing solutions using interconnectors and regional/local options including demand side management and energy storage
- Possible improvement of wind power output forecasting by international approach
- Identification of critical transmission corridors, grid infrastructure reinforcement and optimisation
- Overall European capacity credit of wind power