Clearing the Air: Wind Power and Reliability

[jpak]

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=51767

In its February issue of Windletter, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) addressed questions about the reliability of wind power in an attempt to get the facts straight. Wind power, often regarded as too intermittent to be reliable as a major player in the electricity generation game is in fact proving to be an important part of the worldwide energy mix. In question and answer format, see the answers below to some of the most pressing questions and misunderstood issues about the reality of wind power today.

Yes. Wind power is currently supplying 48 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity annually in the U.S., powering the equivalent of over 4.5 million homes. Wind power is an important part of electric utility generation portfolios. Yet some question whether wind power, being a variable resource (meaning it generates electricity when the wind is blowing, not on demand) can be relied upon as part of a system that provides reliable electricity to consumers without interruption. Based on a growing body of analytical and operational experience, the answer is a resounding "yes."

According to many utilities and reliability authorities, wind power can readily be accommodated into electric system operations reliably and economically.

High Wind Penetration and Reliable Operation

In Europe, Denmark receives over 20% of its electricity from wind power, and in 2007 Germany received 14.3% of its electricity from wind power. Both Spain and Portugal had periods in 2007 when wind power provided over 20% of their electricity. In the U.S., Minnesota and Iowa both get close to 5% of their electricity from wind power. These examples provide real-world experiences with high penetrations of wind power, as a valuable part of a utility generation mix that supplies reliable electrical service to consumers without interruption.

Accommodating the Variable Nature of Wind Power

When wind isn't blowing, reliable electrical service is maintained by turning up the output of other generators on the electric power system. Electric utility companies serve as "system operators" that can be thought of as air traffic controllers of the power system. System operators can control, or dispatch, generators on their system such as natural gas-fired and hydro generators. They have always actively dispatched their systems in response to electrical demand, or load, which varies randomly over the course of an hour or day. Wind behaves similar to load in that it is "variable," meaning its output rises and falls within hourly and daily time periods; and it is "non-dispatchable," meaning its output can be controlled only to a limited extent.

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[madokie]

1. I'm happy to read this

This would have been a good year to have a wind turbine here in NE OK as this so far has been a very windy late winter, early spring. My neighbor has an eighty foot tower that he used to have a 5 kw generator on. Here he couldn't connect it so as to spin the meter backwards as I guess you can do in some locals but not here in oklahoma. We pay $.08 a kw for our electric and the power company would only pay him $.02 a kw so when he had a problem with it a couple years ago he took it down and has no plans to put it back up. I'd love to have the tower but he wouldn't part with it.

[kristopher]

2. If you have the land consider putting up your own

The turbines need about 1/3 to 1/2 mile between them, but the newer larger (1.5-2MW) ones might be extremely profitable in OK. The winds there are generally good, and if you are situated in a place with good grid access, then the economics of a wind farm might work for you. There are lots of companies that specialize in getting projects up and running so that, if you own the land, you can sit back and collect a pretty healthy check for generating power as a business.


BTW, here is the link to OKs net metering policy.

http://www.dsireusa.org/library/includes/incentive2.cfm?Incentive_Code=OK01R&state=OK&CurrentPageID=1&RE=1&EE=0

Oklahoma - Net Metering
Incentive Type: Net Metering Rules
Eligible Renewable/Other Technologies: Solar Thermal Electric, Photovoltaics, Wind, Biomass, Hydroelectric, Geothermal Electric, Municipal Solid Waste, CHP/Cogeneration
Applicable Sectors: Commercial, Industrial, Residential, General Public/Consumer
Limit on System Size: 100 kW or 25,000 kWh/year (whichever is less)
Limit on Overall Enrollment: None
Treatment of Net Excess: Granted to utility monthly or credited to customer's next bill (varies by utility)
Utilities Involved: Investor-owned utilities, electric cooperatives regulated by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission
Authority 1: O.A.C. § 165:40-9
Date Enacted: 5/23/1988

Summary:
Net metering has been available in Oklahoma since 1988 under Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) Order 326195. The OCC's rules require investor-owned utilities and electric cooperatives under the commission's jurisdiction to file net-metering tariffs for customer-owned renewable-energy systems and combined-heat-and-power (CHP) facilities up to 100 kilowatts (kW) in capacity. Net metering is available to all customer classes. There is no limit on the amount of aggregate net-metered capacity.

Utilities are not allowed to impose extra charges for customers signed up for net metering, nor are they allowed to require new liability insurance as a condition for interconnection. Utilities are also not required to purchase net excess generation (NEG) from customers. However, a customer may request that the utility purchase NEG. In the utility agrees, then NEG will be purchased at the utility's avoided-cost rate.

Systems must be installed and maintained in compliance with the National Electric Code (NEC). An external disconnect switch is required.

[DCKit]

3. In English:

Your neighbor could produce as much energy as he uses and pay little or nothing to the utility. However, he's not going to become rich selling energy back to the utility. They are under no obligation to pay even the $0.02 for excess production.

I don't see a downside unless the turbine is simply too expensive to maintain.

[madokie]

5. From what I'm reading this morning it looks like maybe he doesn't know what he was talking about

for ten years I listened to the thing making noise and I got to where I could tell how fast, relatively speaking that is, the wind was blowing. Under high winds like we're having today it would be making a quite a bit of noise. rrrr rrrr rrrr rrrr

[kristopher]

6. You might want to look more closely at the profit potential

Let's start with the Federal Production Tax Credit of $0.021/kwh generated.
Add the OK Zero Emission tax credit of $0.005 /kwh generated.
Add $0.04/kwh as the average price you'll probably get selling into the hour ahead market as an independent power producer.

Total: $0.066 / kwh generated.

One 1.5Mw (1500kw)land based turbine operating at full capacity for every hour of the 8760 hour year would produce 13,140,000kwh/year.

However, the actual probable production, on land in a good location, will be only 30% of that for 3,942,000kwh/year.

3,492,000 times $0.066 = $260,072 per year per tower.

Scale to desired size. To a point, the more you build, the less each one will probably cost.


There are also special rules that vary by state for Renewable Energy Credits and a Federal accelerated depreciation schedule to consider.

The 4 cents/kwh average price is variable, but I think it is probably close as an overall average that counts power that is generated but unsold.

[DCKit]

7. While I totally agree with the sentiment...

The utility is under no obligation to pay any citizen for their excess power and becoming a utility isn't possible under the current laws. In our wildest dreams we probably can't imagine the hoops they'd make you jump through. The best the consumer can hope for is to break even: Any more, and you'd be subsidizing the utility by giving them free electricity to sell to other customers.

Until the laws are re-written to benefit the citizen producers, it makes no sense to install more capacity than required to cover your own electric bill each month. If the law in your state allows extra capacity to be carried over from month to month through the end of the year, the calculations are trickier, but you still don't want to end the year with a positive balance.

[kristopher]

8. I'm not talking about a "citizen producer".

The unbundling of the electric utility industry and the nature of wind and solar are reshaping the economics of power generation. In this scenario you don't look for a guaranteed price for the power you produce; you sell it to meet the fluctuating demand that is contracted on an hour by hour basis. The producers link their bid prices to their respective fuel costs, and with wind having 0 fuel costs it can bid into the system at 0 and guarantee the sale of most of its production. The actual price paid however, is based on the highest bid accepted. For example, if the grid operator requests 50 Mw and wind is producing 10 Mw, the remaining 40Mw will be met by electricity produced probably from natural gas (say $.35 kwh) for 20Mw and spinning reserve coal (say $.18 kwh) for 20Mw. (It isn't unusual for the spot price to hit $1.00 a kwh during high demand.) Everyone that had a bid accepted would get the same as the hihgh bid, in this case, $.35kwh.

There are hoops in meeting all the regulatory requirements, but again, if you own land with a good resource and it has a good grid tie in, there are companies that specialize in jumping through all those hoops. People wouldn't have any trouble wrapping their heads around this if the energy was stored as natural gas or petroleum, so maybe it helps to think of it that way. The only difference is that the wind isn't able to be depleted as if it were fossil. We will be "pumping" from the good locations for probably many, many years to come.

A good resource on the topic for farmers or ranchers is the US Dept of Ag.
BTW Another indicator is that John Deere is going into the wind business in a big way.

[madokie]

4. Thanks for the info and link

I'll be passing it on to my neighbor for him to digest as it sounds like the info he was giving me was bogus, he's like that sometimes. He has all the credentials of a right wing fundie but he swears he's a dem. :-) I'm not sure how that works but theres lots of things I don't understand I guess, oh well.
We have the property that would be good for a wind turbine but we're hoping to build a new house on it in a couple years so using it as a generator site would be out.