The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), Texas’s electricity grid operator, reported that wind resources on February 18 hit a record peak output of 14,023 MW at 9:20 PM, which was enough to serve just under 40% of the state’s load at that moment. A short time later, at 11:08 PM, wind resources achieved another all-time high when, despite slightly reduced output of 13,907 MW but because of reduced load, wind served a whopping 45.14% of the demand on the grid.
Not surprisingly, the wind that week was blowing in other parts of the region as well, resulting in the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) experiencing their own records. According to the American Wind Energy Association’s blog,” SPP set a record for peak generation of 10,439 MW on the 17th and a record for wind penetration of 43.9% on the 19th. MISO set a record for wind generation of 13,084 MW, also on the 19th.
Commenting on these notable achievements, Michael Goggin, AWEA’s Senior Director of Research, said:
These record wind outputs by grid operators across the country demonstrate that large amounts of wind energy can be reliably integrated into the grid. Thanks to technological advances, wind plants are able to meet or succeed the reliability functions of conventional generation, allowing renewable resources to play an even greater role in the U.S. energy mix.
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