Jun. 6--Wind is moving from being a niche market to the mainstream.

"This is really a pretty big change. ... There are 42 utilities at this conference," said Pat Wood, chairman of the North American advisory board for wind developer Airtricity. Wood was at the WindPower 2007 conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday, along w th other speakers who addressed the challenges for wind power arising from transmission, cost and reliability issues. The lack of transmission from wind-rich West Texas to the millions of customers in the rest of Texas is limiting how many wind farms companies will build. "Right now, we'll just have to make the best of an imperfect world." Pat Wood, chairman of the North American advisory board for wind developer Airtricity.

Those customers are served by a separate power grid overseen by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Connecting ERCOT and the Southwest Power Pool that covers the Panhandle is not favored by some, but a change could come in the future. "Right now, we'll just have to make the best of an imperfect world," Wood said. "For the benefit of the ERCOT part of Texas, I just don't see eliminating the distinction between the grids would work." However, Wood said he and others are looking to incorporate the Panhandle into ERCOT. Nationally, getting the wind power to the people is also an issue and there are several ways to approach that.

The options range from a new base system to surgical expansion or better use of the existing system, said Randall Swisher, executive director of the American Wind Energy Association. Wind development is also limited by its intermittent nature. The time customers need the most electricity is not necessarily when the wind is blowing. Managing demand, such as encouraging industry to shift demand to times when wind is plentiful, is one way to make wind power more practical, said Paul Bonavia, pre ident of the utilities group of Xcel Energy. Wind power generators are typically companies separate from the utilities that sell to residents and businesses.

That may have to change to enhance the possibility of achieving a national goal of 20 percent to 30 percent wind power in the next 20 years. Xcel is looking at being a generator rather than just a purchaser of wind energy, Bonavia said. When the company enters into a long-term contract for buying wind energy, rating companies charge that as debt, increasing the cost of borrowing money. That makes investing in generation more attractive.