ERCOT doubling down on wind
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has set a new record on the main Texas grid, reaching more than 10,000 MW of wind -- the most ever for a U.S. power system, and the equivalent of powering more than five million average homes.
 |
|
Credit: AWEA |
Texas is the national leader in wind energy, in part, because it has created policies that enable private sector investment in, and open access to, an expanded transmission grid. Texas' recent wind records were made possible by the completion of the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone (CREZ) transmission lines earlier this year, which connect world class wind energy resource areas in West Texas and the Texas Panhandle to electricity demand centers. The lines are allowing ERCOT to nearly double its use of wind energy.
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) has adopted similar cost allocation policies for a set of transmission lines called the Multi-Value Projects, which will potentially integrate nearly 14,000 MW of new wind capacity. The Southwest Power Pool has adopted a Highway/Byway transmission cost allocation policy and is making progress towards building a set of lines called the Priority Projects, which are expected to serve more than 3,000 MW of new wind capacity.
"It may have taken a few years, but in many parts of the country the grid is finally catching up with wind energy's rapid growth," said Michael Goggin, senior electric industry analyst, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). "These recent wind energy records, and the tens of billions of dollars of new wind energy investment in the pipeline, are a product of those transmission success stories."
For more:
- see this
report
© 2014 FierceMarkets, a division of Questex Media Group LLC. All rights reserved.
http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/ercot-doubling-down-wind/2014-04-08