Renewable, But Not So Reliable
We are scolded and told that it is imperative that we generate more of our energy from "renewable" resources. The dirty little secret the Al Goreans don't tell us is this: "Renewable" energy is not very reliable. The Startlegram reports today that a sudden drop in West Texas wind Tuesday caused the Lone Star State to narrowly avoid statewide rolling blackouts:
Operators of the state power grid scrambled Tuesday night to keep the lights on after a sudden drop in West Texas wind threatened to cause rolling blackouts, officials confirmed Wednesday.
At about 6:41 p.m. Tuesday, grid operators ordered a shutoff of power to so-called interruptible customers, which are industrial electric users who have agreed previously to forgo power in times of crisis. The move ensured continued stability of the grid after power dropped unexpectedly.
Dottie Roark, a spokeswoman for the power grid, said a sudden uptick in electricity use coupled with other factors and a sudden drop in wind power caused the unexpected dip. As a result, grid officials immediately went to the second stage of its emergency blackout prevention plan.
Kent Saathoff, vice president for system operations at ERCOT [Electric Reliability Council of Texas], said Tuesday's event illustrates the inherent challenges associated with using wind power. Because the wind sometimes stops blowing without a moment's notice, engineers at ERCOT must remain nimble enough to respond to resulting instability on the grid, he said.
Yesterday's event shows that so-called renewable energy is not suitable as a source of energy for a large heavily populated state like Texas. It is inconceivable that an energy-rich state such as ours should have to even consider the possibility of blackouts. Increasing our reliance on wind power will lead Texas backwards to the status of a third-world county.
Labels: Environonsense
posted by JohnPeterSmith at 28.2.08
5 Comments:
Interesting. On the very same day, 5 million customers in Florida (which has no wind on its utility system), lost power entirely. Are we to conclude that the generators there have no place in a modern industrial society?
Seriously, it's useful to note that 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
Sounds like they had a plan to deal with such a situation, and it worked.
Allowing our air to become more polluted is what will really make Texas like a third-world country. With air-conditioners, of course.
I think this incident shows that, with the proper planning, wind energy CAN provide reliable power for a populous state like Texas.
Mr. Gray:
The outage in FL has been reported as being caused by human error. I don't see that it really relates to what happened in TX.
Bernie:
ERCOT violated their own rules in not telling the public about the situation (see latest post). Why? Wind power may have a role to play in meeting our future energy needs. However, I'd like to see some data how reliable it is. I can't support scarring miles of countryside with new transmission lines just to make us feel good about ourselves.
Mr. Smith,
Good point. It only relates if one is making far-reaching claims, such as that wind has no business on the utility system because its output is variable.
For your information, it is our understanding that in ERCOT, 10 generating plants have instantaneously tripped offline since last Wednesday alone. In the largest of these incidents, 420 MW, 540 MW, and 650 MW were instantaneously lost because a non-wind generating unit tripped offline, in contrast to wind falling 400 MW below grid operators' expectations over the course of several hours on February 26th.
Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
www.powerofwind.org
www.awea.org
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