No other customers lost power during the emergency, ERCOT said.
Interruptible customers were restored in about 90 minutes and the
emergency was over in three hours.
ERCOT said the grid's frequency dropped suddenly when wind production
fell from more than 1,700 megawatts, before the event, to 300 MW when
the emergency was declared.
In addition, ERCOT said multiple power suppliers fell below the amount
of power they were scheduled to produce on Tuesday. That, coupled with
the loss of wind generated in West Texas, created problems moving
power to the west from North Texas.
ERCOT declares a stage 1 emergency when power reserves fall below
2,300 MW. A stage 2 emergency is called when reserves fall below 1,750
MW.
At the time of the emergency, ERCOT demand increased from 31,200 MW to
a peak of 35,612 MW, about half the total generating capacity in the
region, according to the agency's Web site.
Is this the future for boutique wind power? Clearly this is exactly what those of us here on the DK have been warning about: wind cannot substitute for BASE LOAD power. Period.
I should of added this to my Energy Rant from yesterday but...oh well.
Wind is 'boutique power' because it fills a very small niche of the generation demand because it is, uhmmm "unreliable". See above. It can function to lower the 'burn rate' of fossil so long as that fossil is available to raise load when the wind...uhmm...the wind stops blowing like it did...uhmm...today in the windpower capital of the world, the Lonestar State.
We've been saying that it's not always there when we need it and this shows that this is the case. And, it's expensive. But...interestingly, Texas actually doesn't have that much...5% or so of the load. So clearly, who whoever at ERCOT thought that the early part of that days load could handle a 5,000 MW incease based on a reserve capacity of...wind...ought to get taken out side and spanked.
Fortunatly, nuclear energy is on an upswing in Texas with about 1/4 of all the plants announced to be in that state...which don't have to wait until the wind picks up.
For wind to work in the situations above, ERCOT, and any ISO, has to be able to have on demand back up spinning reserve available for ALL the wind "capacity" that is "available". Ironic quotes are added here because "capacity" in the case of wind is a very hit and miss concept and "availability" is used by wind advocates as when the turbine is "available" even if the wind isn't blowing...which in my mind means when...there is no power available TO the ISO for dispatch. At any rate, wind can be integrated into an ISO's jusridiction, so long as no one actually depends on it when it's needed.
David
