The currently installed and grid-connected capacity of wind energy in China is 105.5 GW. But the installation of new wind turbines especially in the north-eastern and north-western provinces of China still leads to considerable curtailment.

Windrad
© Petra Bork / Pixelio

Guest author Simon Goess – Blog Global Sustainability

While the curtailment rate in 2014 could be reduced, the statistics of the National Energy Administration for the first half of 2015 prove that considerable challenges in accommodating fluctuating electricity feed-in from wind energy still exist. In the first half of 2015 the average curtailment rate across China was 15.2 %. This implies that 17.5 TWh of electricity from wind was discarded and not fed-into the grid during the first six months of 2015.

A breakdown of the numbers for the most affected provinces is shown below (NEA CN 1, NEA CN 2). The curtailment rates are depicted in percentages on the left side, the amount of the curtailed electricity in TWh on the right side.

One measure to reduce curtailment rates was proposed by the National Energy Administration earlier this year. Provinces with an average curtailment rate of more than 20% shall not plan new wind energy projects (NEA CN 3).