Wind turbines connected to the Bonneville Power Administration's (BPA) transmission grid generated over 4 GW for the first time on March 11, producing nearly twice as much energy as that generated by coal, gas and nuclear plants connected to BPA's system at that time.
Wind generation on BPA's system surpassed the 4 GW milestone at 3:22 p.m., reaching a new all-time peak of 4.039 GW about an hour and a half later. BPA expects to have 5 GW of wind power connected to its system by 2013.
The agency notes that almost 1 GW of wind energy was added to its grid over the last 12 months.
In addition, BPA is currently working with FERC to address issues related to oversupply that caused it to curtail 350 MW of wind energy generation last spring.
