The states of Texas and California should provide useful case studies going forward see:
Wind hits new monthly record for share of ERCOT energy
More than one in four megawatt-hours consumed in March in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas was supplied by wind power — the biggest share ever for renewables in the Lone Star State’s main grid operator, a report released Monday shows.
ERCOT’s monthly Demand and Energy Report shows the grid used almost 26 TWh in March, of which wind supplied about 6.6 TWh, equal to about 25.4% of the total, which beat the previous record, 23.3%, set in February. In March 2016, the percentage was 15.5%.
Wind’s total in March was less than 2 percentage points below that of coal-fired generation, which supplied the second-largest share, 7.1 TWh or 27.2%.
and
CAISO: Renewables served 42% of California demand on May 16, setting record
Dive Brief:
The California ISO hit a new renewable energy record this week, with wind, solar, hydro and other renewables serving nearly 42% of electricity demand on May 16, according to CAISO data.
During peak renewables production over the 2 p.m. hour, renewables supplied nearly 72% of the ISO’s electricity. Thermal generation (mostly gas-fired), unspecified power imports and nuclear power made up the balance.
The record comes just days after the previous one on was set on Saturday, May 13, when renewables supplied 67% of the ISO’s power over a one-hour period.
AFAIK the levels of renewable penetration on the California grid rival if not exceed the levels in Germany. In both cases the grids have ample avenues for the export of excess power and power imports to alleviate shortages.
Texas is interesting from the point of view that wind turbine installations are continuing apace while solar is just getting started and wind is already contributing as much as 45% of power demand. See:
New record set for most wind-power used in Texas
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A new record for wind generated power used in the ERCOT system was set this past weekend.
KXAN’s Natalie Ferrari looks into how wind farms are playing a big part in serving the state’s electricity demands. The most recent cold front brought incredibly breezy conditions all across the Lone Star State.
According to ERCOT, “wind generation” set a new record last Sunday afternoon for the most wind power used. This usage represented about 45 percent of the state’s total power demand at the time.
Wind farms from all across north, west and south Texas can be thanked for producing this record setting usage.
Going in-depth on just how much power was used, ERCOT says over 15,000 megawatts of electricity was used just on Sunday afternoon. Comparing that to the last output record, which was over 14,000 megawatts on Nov. 17.
The current record for percentage of load served from wind generation is a little over 48 percent, last set on March 23, 2016. While there is more than 17,000 MW of installed wind generation capacity serving the ERCOT system, they say their total is expected to top 19,000 MW by the end of the year. |
