Wind Energy

Wind power tops 25 percent of load on main Texas grid

Wind energy generated electricity briefly topped 25 percent of total electricity supply on the main Texas utility network March 1, and provided 17-23 percent for a roughly 24-hour period on March 2-3, according to data supplied by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the system.

The high point was not quite a record either in percentage of supply or total instantaneous power from wind turbines for the ERCOT system, which reached a wind farm penetration of 27.97% in early December 2011 and a power record of 7,400 megawatts (MW) in October 2011. Still, it serves as a reminder that wind farms can generate a substantial amount of the electricity on a large, modern utility system.

Tom Gray, www.awea.org/blog/