Wind Power faces Stormy Future

With wind power generation expected to reach total grid capacity of 6,000 megawatts by 2013, operators will be forced to curtail the green power more often as stable hydro power must be held in reserve.  

The problem lies with both the existing grid and the need to protect fish on the Columbia River. As pointed out in today’s article in the Oregonian,

“As the region’s wind fleet grows, an ever bigger slice of the hydro pie is being reserved to fill in when the wind doesn’t blow as scheduled. That means foregone sales of surplus power, a source of revenue that reduces BPA’s rates for public utility customers.

When the wind blows harder than forecast, particularly during periods of high spring runoff at the dams, operators face the opposite problem. They can’t bypass the dam turbines to lower hydro generation, because dumping too much water over the spillways harms fish. So the other option is to cut generation at the wind farms.

Too many curtailments, however, undermines the economics of wind, not only because turbines generate less power to sell but because valuable tax and renewable energy credits are only generated when their blades are spinning.”  

The article goes on to explain that trying to get the wind industry to help pay for increased capacity they bring to the system has become a political battle.  

“We are committed to trying to find ways to get as much wind into the system as possible, but we’re going to be real sticklers about reliability, and we think it’s it’s not fair to have a cost shift,” said Elliott Mainzer, BPA’s director of strategic planning

BPA does charge wind farms to offset the additional costs they bring to the system. But those charges have been highly contentious.

Last year, when the agency proposed quadrupling its “integration” rate, Oregon’s congressional delegation took up the wind developers’ fight, accusing the agency of dragging its feet on renewables and focusing solely on maintaining low rates for its public utility customers. Sen. Ron Wyden was highly critical of the agency’s attitude problem, and Rep. Earl Blumenauer even suggested it might be time for new leadership at the agency.”  

As well as protecting salmon, building the lines to carry all this “free power” has environmental and financial obstacles as well:  

“Building new transmission, though, is an uphill battle. New lines often require new rights of way through sensitive habitat and private property. And they are phenomenally expensive, raising the show-stopping question of who pays.”  

  So while most environmentalists exhort the benefits of wind power, many within their ranks will deny the full use of this resource by stalling the building of new power lines and preventing more water over dams when the wind is blowing through the gorge in the Spring.