Wind energy generation provided a record-breaking 9.481 GW of power on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid at 7:08 p.m. on Feb. 9, ERCOT reports.
Wind power generation provided nearly 28% of ERCOT's system load at the time, surpassing the previous record of 8.667 GW, set on Jan. 29.
Of the total, 7.205 GW came from West Texas, 1.62 GW came from the Texas Gulf Coast, 431 MW came from northern Texas and 225 MW came from southern Texas.
‘As wind generation capacity continues to be added in ERCOT and additional transmission lines are being completed to accommodate that generation, we continue to set new records,’ says Kent Saathoff, ERCOT's vice president of grid operations and system planning. ‘While wind generation over the course of a day can change very quickly, improved tools help us predict those patterns and enable us to reliably use this resource to its fullest potential.’
ERCOT has more than 10.4 GW of commercial wind power capacity. Wind power constituted 9.2% of the total energy used in the ERCOT region in 2012, compared to 8.5% in 2011.
The completion of the remainder of the high-voltage transmission projects in the Competitive Renewable Energy Zones by the end of this year will continue to improve ERCOT's ability to move wind power from West Texas to the metropolitan areas where demand on the grid is highest, ERCOT notes.
