Project could generate more wind power

A rural electric provider will build 170 megawatts of new, quick-responding generators in a move county officials hope will entice more wind development.

Golden Spread Electric Cooperative Inc. will build a plant powered by 18 9-megawatt natural gas generators about three miles north of the Lubbock County line, outside of Abernathy.

The generators will give the cooperative more flexibility as its customer demand grows and allow the company to take advantage of increased wind development, company officials said.

The more than $200 million construction plans should not increase rates for Lubbock customers of South Plains Electric Cooperative, said James Driver, executive vice president and general manager.

South Plains power comes from Golden Spread purchases.

Wind has become a bigger part of the more than 700 megawatts of power the cooperative purchases through other sources.

But wind can make the market do unpredictable things. When strong winds spin turbines, electric prices drop to attractive levels. If wind speeds wane, more expensive power sources replace the renewable energy.

Natural gas generators like the 18 Golden Spread proposed can fire up much more quickly than less expensive but lumbering coal plants. The quick response makes them an attractive backup to cheaper wind sources, said Mark Schwirtz, Golden Spread president and general manager.

“These units are an iron hedge against that market volatility,” Schwirtz said.

Golden Spread is no stranger to volatile energy problems. Farming operations make up the bulk – more than 30 percent – of Golden Spread’s demand.

Most of that energy powers wells that feed irrigation for the region’s cotton, grain and other crops. The sudden leaps in electrical demand can make powering farm operations difficult to plan.

Power companies build their generators to provide base load – a constant minimum amount of power used steadily by their customers – and then additional power to feed brief, high demand spikes. Farms require very little constant power, but when they need it, they need a lot.

Wind works in similar ways, but on the supply side. Wind customers may suddenly have a bounty of cheap energy, or just as quickly have no power at all.

Generators that can quickly respond to the falling supply help the cooperative fill in the gaps when wind disappears.

“We’re in the best wind in West Texas, in the United States,” Driver said. “We really think that we can capture that good market when it’s available.”

Hale County commissioners approved 10 years of tax abatements for the project.

The project should offer a financial windfall to nearby Abernathy Independent School District, which cannot legally abate taxes, County Judge Dwayne Dodson said.

He hoped a move that supported more wind power use in the High Plains could attract more wind farm development for the rest of the county.

“This is sort of a carrot,” Dodson said. “That was our real incentive.”

Plus, with Lubbock County so close by, there was no other guarantee that the court could have kept a $200 million to $240 million project on their side of the county line, he said.

“If we didn’t do it, I bet you somebody else might have,” Dodson said.

By Elliott Blackburn

The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

lubbockonline.com

24 November 2009

Tags: Wind power, Wind energy

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