WIND EASED TEXAS POWER CRISIS

Background on Texas Blackouts
February 2, 2011 (American Wind Energy Association)

"Many parts of Texas experienced rolling blackouts [Wednesday], coinciding with unusually cold temperatures…Millions of [power] customers statewide appear to have been affected…Wind energy played a major role in keeping the blackouts from becoming more severe…

"Between 5 and 7 A.M…the peak of the electricity shortage…wind was providing between 3,500 and 4,000 MW, roughly the amount it had been forecast and scheduled to provide. That is about 7% of the state's total electricity demand at that time, or enough for about 3 million average homes...Cold and icy conditions caused unexpected equipment failures at power plants, taking up to 50 fossil-fired power plants totaling 7,000 MW of capacity offline…"

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"...The cold temperatures caused electric heating demand to exceed the demand expected for this time of year. Many fossil and nuclear power plants take planned outages during non-summer months for maintenance, since electric demand is usually lower during these periods than in the summer…[Cold also] led to very high demand for natural gas for heating…which may have strained…the natural gas pipeline and distribution [system's capability to both meet] heating needs and…supply natural gas power plants…Texas obtains about half of its electricity by burning natural gas…"

[Michael Goggin, Manager of Transmission Policy, American Wind Energy Association:] "While we are still learning about what happened...this weather event clearly demonstrates the importance of developing and maintaining a diverse energy portfolio that is not overly dependent on any one energy source…This experience shows just how valuable a clean, affordable and homegrown energy source like wind can be in contributing to a reliable electric system."