LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Bonneville: Wind generation curtailment season appears to be over 

Credit:  By Kerry Bleskan, SNL | www2.snl.com 1 June 2012 ~~

Barring unseasonable amounts of rainfall, the Bonneville Power Administration is unlikely to curtail wind production any more this year.

Wind and water both run high in the Northwest in the spring. After rapid growth in installed wind capacity on its system, Bonneville came to the conclusion that generation should be curtailed when water is high and load is low and that failing to run water through dam turbines will cause water-quality problems that can harm fish. Bonneville made wind producers take their generation offline without compensation a number of times in 2011, costing the wind generators contract prices and production tax credits and giving the agency something of a black eye in the media.

The agency implemented its revamped curtailment policy on four successive days in late April and early May, with no curtailments since. In a June 1 call to update stakeholders, operations analyst Steve Barton said forecasts indicate that peak river flow “is pretty much over.”

Inflow peaked at the McNary project around the last week of April and early May, and has remained below 400 thousand cubic feet per second, or kcfs, since then. June forecasts are predicting about 300 kcfs at the beginning of the month, falling to about 200 kcfs near July 1. Inflow at the Grand Coulee and Lower Granite projects peaked around April 27.

“June can surprise us with some rainfall activity,” Barton said, “but it’s looking pretty manageable through the end of June.”

The Columbia Generating Station was reduced to 85% during the high water season. The plant recently came back up, synching to the grid on May 29 and reaching full power May 31. Other Bonneville efforts to deal with over-generation conditions in 2012 included a storage agreement with BC Hydro and Power Authority, moving nonessential transmission maintenance outages to other times of the year, and the development of a recallable energy product to hold required reserves on a separate, interconnected transmission system.

Since things are looking quiet on the over-generation front, Bonneville staff is moving the weekly update calls to every other week.

Source:  By Kerry Bleskan, SNL | www2.snl.com 1 June 2012

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon