Texas’ wind farms hit a new peak generation record earlier this month, hitting 7,400 megawatts at 3:06 a.m. on Oct. 7.
That beat the previous record of 7,355 MW set June 19, at 10:26 a.m.
At the time of the new record, wind was supplying 15.2 percent of the total system load of 48,733 MW, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
Texas leads the nation in installed wind power capacity with 9,452 MW. The 1999 law that deregulated much of Texas’ electric markets included a renewable energy mandate that requires electric retailers to purchase a certain percentage of their power from renewable sources.
While wind power is touted as an alternative for fossil fuel-fired power plants, some argue its shortcoming are too great to overcome. This includes wind power’s reliance of federal tax incentives,the fact that for most inland sites peak wind production hours don’t coincide with peak energy demand and the added cost of building transmission lines from high-wind areas to major cities.
Austin-based author Robert Bryce argues in a paper this week that for the U.S. to meet a target of 20 percent of its power coming from wind by 2030 it would have to spend $850 billion. But the American Wind Energy Association’s Jon Goldstein argues Bryce’s calculations overestimate the cost of wind.
Texas’ coastal wind turbines have been credited with helping the state avoid rolling blackouts this summer when record-breaking power demand combined with large numbers of power plant outages during peak hours.
Of ERCOT’s 9,452 MW of wind capacity, 7,942 MW are in the western part of the state, 292 MW in the north and 1,216 MW on the coast.
During the peak on Oct. 7, 967 MW came from coastal wind farms and 6,433 MW from inland farm in west and north Texas.
ERCOT also said this week the state’s prolonged drought has led one 24 megawatt generation unit to shut down due to a lack of cooling water. If the drought lasts through May, however, ERCOT officials estimate more than 3,000 megawatts of capacity may need to be offline due to water shortages.
ERCOT said power plant owners have been building pipelines to remote water sources and lining up addition sources in anticipation of future problems.
