You’re correct, my post is not a complete examination of all the issues that occured during the outage. However, as I pointed out, the problem appears to be percipitated by the loss of the wind generation. If the other non-wind facilities had come up as they were supposed to, it would not have been a problem, just another day like any other involving wind generation. However, my point is that while wind can play an important role in the power mix, using wind as baseload generation can be risky. If the wind isn’t blowing, other facilities have to come on line to service the load. Bottom line, while wind can help reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, it can not replace “traditional” sources until the time that the energy generated by wind can be effectively stored for those times that its not blowing.

Patrick

When the wind stops blowing and wind farm electricity generation drops, the process usually takes hours. By contrast, other power plants may go out of service instantaneously when a problem occurs. Wind forecasting, which could have helped address the ERCOT situation, can be and is being used by utility system operators to manage wind on their systems, and will become standard practice as the use of this clean, renewable energy source continues to grow.

Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
www.powerofwind.org
www.awea.org