Overview of Bison Wind Farm: An AC Collector and HVDC Transmission Grid

Wind energy is considered one of the most feasible renewable energy sources in the United States. Globally, the amount of electricity generated by wind has increased significantly. This study highlights the status of wind energy in the U.S. and presents an assessment of the Bison wind farm, the largest wind farm in the state of North Dakota. The Bison wind farm is a 496.6 MW onshore installation owned and operated by Minnesota Power. The Bison wind farm includes four phases, the first three phases were built and commissioned in 2010-2012 and the fourth phase came online in January 2015. The study provides a detailed overview of the Bison wind farm in terms of wind turbine conversion system, control, and power conversion process. Attributes of Siemens SWT-2.3-101, SWT-3.0-101, and SWT-3.2-113 that are used in the Bison wind farm are taken out and executed to perform analysis. Statistical analysis using Weibull distribution is performed to calculate the probability of wind energy at the Bison wind farm.