North American Windpower: Wind Energy Output Tops Record-Breaking 10 GW In Midwest ISO Region

by NAW Staff on Wednesday 28 November 2012

For the first time, wind energy output in the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator's (MISO) territory - which includes 11 U.S. states and the Canadian province of Manitoba - surpassed 10 GW.

The new wind power peak of 10.012 GW took place the night of Nov. 23 and represented more than 25% of the generation output being used at the time, MISO says.

"Wind represents one of the fuel choices that helps us manage congestion on the system and ultimately helps keep prices low for our customers and the end-use consumer," says Joe Gardner, executive director of real-time operations at MISO. “When we have significant quantities of wind being generated, we use less of other, more expensive, generation types to keep the system in balance.”

MISO now manages more than 11 GW of installed wind energy generation in service, with more than 7 GW of projects advancing through the interconnection phase.

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