Texas Hits New Peak Wind Output

At 8:48 p.m. on March 26, wind energy generation on the electric grid covering most of the state of Texas reached a new instantaneous peak output of 10,296 megawatts (MW). At that moment, wind supplied almost 29% of total electricity load, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the grid's operator. The average wind production in that hour was 10,120 MW. The new wind record surpassed 2 highs reached in the previous week, while the record prior to March was 9,674 MW set in May 2013.

Experts expect that March's wind power record will be surpassed in the near future as the state continues to add wind energy capacity. Texas currently has in excess of 12,000 MW of operational, utility-scale wind energy capacity, about one-fifth of the total wind energy capacity in the United States. According to preliminary data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Electric Power Monthly, Texas added 150 MW of utility-scale wind energy capacity in 2013, less than one-tenth of the nearly 1,600 MW added in the previous year. See the EIA's June 23, 2014, edition of "Today in Energy".

There are currently no comments for this story. Be the first to add a comment!
Click here to add a comment about this story.