Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences Vol. 6, No.

2, 163-168, 2010

ISSN: 1814-8085

WIND CHARACTERISTICS AND WIND POWER POTENTIAL

FOR SOUTHERN COASTS OF SINDH, PAKISTAN
M. Akhlaque Ahmed*, Firoz Ahmed** and M. Wasim Akhtar***
*Department of Physics, Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology, University Road, Karachi, Pakistan
**Department of Physics, University of Karachi, University Road, Karachi, Pakistan
***Usman Institute of Technology, Karachi Pakistan
Abstract
In this present work, the wind characteristics and wind power potential for southern coasts (Hawks bay, Ketibander,
Shah bander) of Sindh province, Pakistan, are presented. These were analyzed using hourly and mean monthly wind
speed data at a height of 10, 30 and 50 m above the ground. Weibull distribution parameters have been studied to
observe the season-wise wind speed pattern distribution for the locations. The analysis shows that seasonal and diurnal
pattern of wind speed matches the electricity load pattern of the area. Higher wind speed of 4 to 6 m/sec and more were
observed during months of April to September in a year and the peak hours of wind speed are from 5 P.M. to 3 A.M.
(Pakistan time). The wind duration availability is discussed on the basis of wind speed intervals. Two Nordex wind
turbine of rated power 150KW and 250 KW (N-27, 29) having hub height 50m were selected for study. A seventeen acre
wind farm has been suggested for these locations from which 200MW of electricity can be generated for utilization
during summer months (April to September).
Keywords: Wind Characteristics, Wind Power Potential, Coasts of Sindh.
INTRODUCTION
Pakistan is a developing and energy deficient country.
Despite its rich coal and gas reserves, Pakistan, like other
country of the region is facing a serious challenge of
energy crisis. The major source for producing electricity
in Pakistan is from fossil fuels, the price of which is
continuously increasing with time and demand. Pakistan
has to import fossil fuel to overcome its energy demand.
This energy deficiency will increase in coming years and
there will be a serious gap between demand and supply of
energy. Moreover the burning of fossil fuel releases CO2
and other harmful gasses which gives environmental
problems such as global warming, Ozone layer depletion
and acid rains etc. The solution to these problems is the
use of renewable energy resources. The renewable energy
resource gives many environmental and economical
benefits in contrast to conventional energy sources. In
recent years, wind energy is widely utilized to produce
electricity in many countries such as Germany, Spain,
United States, India etc. (Abbasi A et al. 2005).
In this research work the wind power potential of
southern coast (Hawks bay, Ketibander and Shah bander)
of Sindh has been studied. To investigate the wind energy
potential for a particular site, it is necessary to have the
knowledge of wind characteristics such as speed,
continuity of wind flow and direction. Wind power
potential has been analyzed using daily and mean monthly
wind speed at a height of 10, 30 and 50 meters from the
ground. The season wise Weibull parameter has been
calculated to see the yearly trend of wind speed and
stability. The potential of a suggested seventeen acres
wind farm has been studied which will be available for

the national grid. Table 1 lists the geographical locations

of the coastal areas of Sindh. Given in Table-2 is the
monthly mean maximum, minimum and annual average
of wind speed for the locations of Sindh at the height of
10m above the ground.
Table 1. Locations of Coastal Stations
Location
Hawksbay
Ketbander
Shahbander

Latitude (N)
24 54
24 00
24 10

Longitude (E)
67 08
67 40
67 54

Table 2. Monthly, mean, maximum minimum and annual

wind speed for coastal locations of south of Sindh in m
sec-1 at 10m height.
Months
Jan.
Feb.
March
April
May
Jun
July
August
September
October
November
December
Maximum
Minimum
Annual
average

Hawksbay
3.00
3.33
4.03
5.26
5.73
5.73
5.66
5.13
4.33
2.63
2.13
2.70
5.73
2.13
4.14

Ketibander
2.66
2.83
2.96
5.56
6.96
7.03
6.70
6.36
5.03
2.63
1.83
2.76
7.03
1.83
4.44

Shahbander
2.70
2.96
3.33
4.80
6.30
6.46
6.23
6.06
4.76
2.63
2.20
2.60
6.46
2.20
4.25

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J. basic appl. sci.

WIND DATA
The data for this study was acquired from Pakistan
Meteorological Department, Karachi office. The data
consisted of three years duration. (2001-2003) It is the
monthly average wind speed measured at a height of 10m
from the ground.
METHODOLOGY
Wind speed distribution is an important factor to estimate
wind energy potential of the location. There are several
density functions, which can be used to describe the wind
speed data. These are Weibull and Rayleigh probability
distribution functions. Weibull is a two parameters
function while Rayleigh is one parameter function.
Moreover Weibull probability distribution function is
more versatile and Rayleigh distribution function is
simple to use. For Weibull distribution, the cumulative
distribution function for wind speed V is given by the
following expression. (Al-Nasar 1995, Ahmed et al
2006)
P (V) = k/c (v/c) k-1 exp [-(v/c) k]

(1)

Where P(V) is the probability of occurrence of speed v

and v is the monthly mean wind speed, k is a
dimensionless shape factor which indicates wind speed
stability and is related to the variance of the wind speed
where c is a scale parameter (with units of speed) and is
related to the mean value of wind speed. Higher value of c
indicates that wind speed for that particular month is
higher. The parameter k and c can be estimated by using
the monthly mean wind speed v and the standard
deviation ( ) of the monthly mean wind speed by solving
the following expression (M.Akhlaque Ahmed et
al.,2006)
k= ( /V) -1.086
c = V/ (1+1/k)

(2)
(3)

where this notation is the gamma function.

The height above the ground level and the nature of the
surface have influence on the speed of the wind at any
given time. The wind speed at a given height can be
represented by Hellmann s exponent law.
V10 = Vh (h/10)

(4)

Vh is the wind speed at height h; V10 is the wind speed at

10 m height, is the Hellmanns exponent. depends on
the nature of the terrain which is indicated as follows. For
flat and open area is approximately equal to one
seventh (Ahmed and Ahmad 2004)

Since power is the energy divided by time, the equation

for the power (WP) can be written as follows (Musgrove,
P.J 1987).
WP (Max. available power) =1/2 .A.v3 watts

(5)

Where is the density of the air, A, is the rotor swept

area and v is the average wind speed. Equation (5) tells us
about the maximum power available in the wind.
Equation (5) also tells us that the power available is
proportional to air density and swept area of the turbine
blade. The value of air density is considered to be 1.225kg
m-3 at sea level or for open area like airport (Musgrove
1987). It may vary 10% to 15% during the year due to
pressure and temperature changes. An aero-turbine with a
large swept area has higher power than a smaller area
machine. The actual power will be somewhat less then
this, because all the available energy is not extractable
from the wind machine.
This available power can not be totally extracted by any
wind machine. The maximum extractable power from any
wind machine is limited by famous Betz relation which
assigns a power co-efficient Cp=16/27 for the maximum
performance of a WM. This can be given by the following
expression (Ahmed et al., 2004).
.
WP (Max. extractable power)=1/2 Cp A v3 watt. (6)
The maximum power likely to be produced by aerogenerator (Wind Machine) can be calculated by using the
following expression (Musgrove 1987).
P= (0.2) D2 * V3

(7)

where P is the power expressed in watt.

D is the diameter of the blade expressed in meter
V is the wind speed expressed as m sec-1
For estimation of wind farm output, it is necessary to
calculate a theoretical capacity factor. Capacity factor is
defined as the ratio of actual energy output to the amount
of energy a machine would produce if it is operated at full
rated power within a given time period. The capacity
factor is given by the following expression (Rehman and
Ahmed 2003)
C.F (%) = [Actual energy output /
Turbine rated capacity *8760] *100

(8)

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The coastal belt of Sindh is about 240 kilometer long
(Khan 2003). The coastal stations selected for wind power
potential studies are Hawksbay, Gharo, Ketibunder and

Ahmed et al.

165

Shahbunder. Hawksbay lies in the west of Karachi city. It

is mainly a long beach used for recreation by the
Karachite. The beach forms part of the low lying plane to
the north extending towards the Jheel ranges. Being the
coastal station it has wind all the time. Thatta is situated
from 23 43 to 25 26 north latitude and 67 05 to 68
45 east longitude. The total area of the district is 17355
square kilometers. Ketibander and Shahbander are in
Thatta district. Ketibander is a fishing settlement and a
small harbor on the Arabian Sea at the mouth of Indus
River. It is on the western coast of the Sindh province.
Shahbander is a small harbor and fishing settlement on
the mouth of the Indus river. It is also on the eastern coast
of Sindh. Gharo is currently emerging as important area
because of developing aqua culture/fish farm nearby. It is
about 40 miles from Karachi. It is at the west coast.

Table 4 gives the numerical values of shape parameter for

all three locations of coast of Sindh.

Figure 1 shows the seasonal variation of wind speed for

Hawksbay, Ketibander and Shahbander whereas Figure 2
shows the annual variation of wind speed for the same
location. According to Figure -1 the peak months for grid
connected application are from April to September.

Potential Locations of the Coasts of Sindh Province

Table 3 gives the numerical values of shape parameter for

all the locations of coastal areas of Sindh province. The
value of shape parameterk for Hawksbay, Shahbander,
and Ketibander is 3.5, 2.8 and 2.3 respectively. Hawksbay
has the highest value of shape parameter while Ketibander
gives the lowest value while Shahbander gives the
moderate values. It indicates that as we move from east
coast to west coast, the value of shape parameter increases
(i.e., Hawksbay is in west coast has k value 3.5 and
Ketibander and Shahbander is in east coast has k value is
2.8 and 2.3). This clearly indicates that the eastern coast
of Sindh has variable and gusty wind flow pattern while
the western coast has very smooth wind flow pattern
throughout the year. This is because the eastern coast
shows lower value of shape parameter and higher value of
shape parameter are obtained for western coast.
Table 3. Numerical values of Weibull parameters for
annual wind speed distribution for coastal locations of
Sindh.
Locations
Hawksbay
Keti bander
Shahbander

k
3.5
2.3
2.8

C
4.6
5.6
4.8

As shown in Table-4 for coastal areas the k values for

spring and autumn seasons are smaller and for winter and
summer, it shows higher values which means that in
spring and autumn seasons are windy whereas winter and
summer months are smooth because smaller k values
corresponds to more variable or gusty wind (Shape
parameter k is 2.3).
The seasonal scale and shape parameters are shown in
Table 4 which clearly indicates the seasonal pattern of
coastal locations for post and pre-monsoon periods.
(Lower in winter and autumn and higher in summer and
spring.)

According to the assessment and result, coastline of Sindh

has outstanding wind potential particularly the Hawksbay,
in Karachi district and Ketibander, Shahbander in Thatta
district (as shown in figure 4).
The existing data indicates a promising wind potential
around Ketibander and Shahbander coast. For these areas
the average annual wind speed varies between 4 to 9 m
sec-1 at 10m height with theoretical capacity factor
exceeding 15 percent. These values indicate that if a 20meter diameter wind turbine is installed at 30m height,
then it could generate 2000 kilowatts power.
The second promising site is Hawksbay situated at west
coast of Karachi. For this area the average annual wind
speed varies between 4 to 6 msec-1 at a height of 10m.
These sites can be used for grid connected applications.
SITE IDENTIFICATION MAP FOR WIND FARM
In developing wind power for electric grid in Sindh, only
the southern coastal region shows the promising site for
wind energy development (Fig. 3). To make the picture
more clear the potential sites for small scale wind farm
have been identified and shown in Figure 4. The potential
site for small scale power generation may be identified as,
Hawksbay in Karachi district, Ketibander and Shahbander
in Thatta district.

Table 4. Weibull parameter k & c for four seasons for the coastal areas of Sindh province.
Seasons
Locations
Hawksbay
Ketibander
Shahbander

Winter
k
6.5
8.6
8.6

Winter
c
3.3
2.8
2.7

Spring
k
3.8
2.7
4.9

Spring
C
5.7
5.9
4.9

Summer
K
9.5
6.1
7.4

Summer
c
5.6
7.5
6.2

Autumn
k
3.6
2.1
3.3

Autumn
c
3.4
3.8
3.4

166

J. basic appl. sci.

Table 5. Seasonal out put power for Ketibander, for Nordex N-27 machine, rated power 150 kw, cut-in speed 4m/sec at
50 m height, Rotor dia. 50 m.
Months
Wind speed m/sec
Out put power in Kw

J
3.3
18

F
3.5
21

M
3.7
25

A
7.0
171

M
8.7
329

J
8.8
340

Jl
8.4
296

A
8.0
256

S
6.3
125

O
3.3
18

N
2.3
6

D
3.4
19

Annual
5.6
0.087 Mw

Table 6. Seasonal out put power for Shahbander, for Nordex N-27 machine, rated power 150 kw, cut-in speed 4m/sec
at 50 m height, Rotor dia. 50 m.
Months
Wind speed m/sec
Out put power in Kw

J
3.3
18

F
3.7
25

M
4.2
37

A
6.0
108

M
7.9
246

J
8.1
265

Jl
7.8
237

A
7.6
219

S
5.9
102

O
3.9
29

N
3.2
16

D
3.6
23

Annual
5.4
0.080 Mw

Table 7. Seasonal out put power for Hawksbay, for Nordex N-27 machine, rated power 150 Kw, cut-in speed 4m/sec
at 50 m height, Rotor dia. 50 m.
Months
Wind speed m/sec
Out put power in Kw

J
3.8
27

F
4.2
37

M
5.0
62

A
6.7
150

M
7.2
186

Fig.1. Monthly wind speed for coastal stations of Sindh.

Feasibility Study of Wind Farm for Potential Location

of Sindh
The area which has wind speed 4m/sec and above is
considered suitable for grid connected wind power
generation. It is observed that very large portion of Sindh
coasts has wind speed between 4 and 8m/sec during
summer season. This energy can be used for grid
connected power generation.
According to our study Hawksbay, Ketibander and
Shahbander are the most potential location on coast line
of Sindh province. The next potential location being
Gharo and its surroundings.

J
7.2
186

Jl
7.1
179

A
6.4
131

S
5.4
78

O
3.3
18

N
2.6
8

D
3.4
19

Annual
5.2
0.070 Mw

Fig. 2. Yearly wind speed for coastal stations of Sindh.

For these locations a seventeen Acre farm (Considered as

medium size farm, Wind Energy in California; American
Wind Energy Association, 2003) is suggested. Wind
power using Nordex wind machine for these farms have
been calculated as shown in Tables 5, 6 and 7. Feasibility
study using N-27, machine having rated out put 150 Kw
and cut in speed of 4msec-1 has been carried out.
According to the present study one such machine will
provide 0.30 MW power with annual average wind speed
of 8.5ms-1 during peak months from April to September.
If in 17 Acre farm, 20 machines per Acre are installed, as
per standard procedure, the out put power from 340
machines (in 17 Acre) will be about 100MW.

Ahmed et al.

Fig. 3. Wind energy potential sites in the province of

Sindh, Pakistan.

Assuming a 20% power loss, the maximum out put from a

17 Acre wind farm suggested for each location
(Hawksbay, Ketibander and Shahbander) will give a
power out put of about 80 MW.

167

Fig. 4. The potential sites for small scale wind farms on the
coast line of Sindh province.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are thankful to Pakistan Meteorological
Department, Karachi Office for providing Wind Data for
South Sindh, Pakistan.

CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
From the analysis it is be concluded that there is a good
prospect for wind power utilization at the coast of Sindh
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pattern of wind speed matches the electricity load pattern
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September (peak months) wind speed for Hawksbay,
Ketibander and Shahbander ranges from 6m/sec to 8.5
m/sec at 50m hub height. For this period an average of
300 MW power can be extracted from 17 acre wind farm
from these locations with an output of 240 MW assuming
a 20 percent losses. The capacity factors for these areas
are also encouraging.
The analysis of wind data suggests a feasible prospect for
electricity generation from wind energy resources in the
energy deficient province of Sindh, with a very minimum
financial investment.

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