Abstract: With the fast development of wind power in China, grid integration of wind power has been a barrier for wind development, especially during the valley load period in winter. Due to the impact of heat load, wind power curtailment becomes a big problem. In areas such as Northeast China and Northwest China, where heating period in winter is long and the proportion of combined heat generation is high, to use the wind power for heating will help to facilitate wind power integration. This paper introduces the principle and characteristics of wind power heating; analyzes the role of wind power heating in improving the wind power integration capability, and the prospect of wind power heating in China. An case study is conducted to quantify the impact of wind power heating on facilitating grid integration capability of wind power. The result shows that wind power heating does help to facilitate wind power integration, but other measures are still needed to thoroughly solve the wind integration problem.

Key words: wind power heating, wind power integration during valley load period, wind power curtailment