The Utility Wind Integration Group (UWIG) has announced the recipients of its annual achievement award. Winners are Dale Osborn of the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator Inc. (Midwest ISO); John Kehler of the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO); Paul Smith of EirGrid, the independent transmission system operator in Ireland; Leslie Bryans from NIE. the transmission owner for Northern Ireland; and Mark O'Malley of University College Dublin.
UWIG President Henry Durrwachter will present the award to the recipients at a reception during its 2008 spring technical workshop and annual meeting held April 17-18 in Fort Worth, Texas.
The citation for the award to Osborn highlights the work and leadership that he and Midwest ISO have demonstrated in developing new methods for transmission planning for the Midwest incorporating large amounts of wind energy.
The citation for the award to Kehler highlights his leadership and work with AESO in addressing the challenges of integrating wind into the Alberta electricity market.
The citations for the awards for Smith, Bryans and O'Malley highlight their leadership and work on the Irish All-Island Grid Study for Renewables Integration. The study, for which the three honorees served on the working group, explored the technical and economic limits to increasing penetrations of renewable energy, and found a feasible scenario of up to 42% renewable energy penetration, most of which was wind, on a weak island system.
‘Effective transmission planning and expansion, effective and well-operated electricity markets, incorporation of wind forecasting into system operations and sound economic and engineering analysis of the current and projected impacts of wind generation have been found by UWIG as essential to making wind work on electric power systems,’ says Durrwachter.
