It’s the hot new topic in the wind-power debate. Opponents of ridgeline wind — the Windies, I call ’em — have seized upon it as a new argument for postponing or banning new wind farm development.
So what is curtailment?
The northeastern power grid is operated by ISO New England. Its job is to maintain a robust transmission system that delivers electricity at all times to all locations. ISO is an extremely cautious organization that has conniptions at the mere notion of instability in the grid. And “intermittent” power sources, such as wind and solar, as well as net metering, raise concerns about instability.
Which has led ISO to occasionally curtail the output of Kingdom Community Wind in Lowell. And there’s the rub. The Vermont Electric Co-op has come out in favor of a moratorium, citing curtailment as a primary reason:
Wind farm turbines are not being allowed to operate at capacity, Hallquist said. “The more we put on, the more trouble we are going to have.”
… Hallquist said they are counting on every dollar Lowell wind can generate to make it cost effective. “We want every megawatt out of there,” he said.
And in testimony to the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee last week, Rep. Mark Higley, lead sponsor of a wind-moratorium bill, asserted that “the reason I sponsored the bill has to do with curtailment.” To which he later added a laundry list of Windy concerns, such as noise and property values. But that’s a subject for another diary.
The questions, then: is curtailment a reason to put the brakes on wind development? And why is ISO such a buzzkill? Shouldn’t it be welcoming our shiny new renewable future?
Let’s take ISO first. “ISO is being extremely conservative,” says Dorothy Schnure, chief spokesflack for Green Mountain Power, which operates Kingdom Wind.
“In 2009 we did a system impact study and found that there would be no impact from Kingdom Community Wind,” she continues. “We thought everything was fine. Then ISO did its own study and reported that there would be a few select times when Kingdom Wind could destabilize the grid.”
Hence, curtailments. Lost power and lost revenues, and questions about the immediate feasibility of wind farms. But GMP negotiated with ISO, and agreed to install a big-ass piece of equipment called a synchronous condenser, which will even out the flow of voltage and will greatly reduce curtailments when it’s installed later this year.
Problem solved. Mostly, at least.
And that seems to be the point. There are problems. ISO isn’t the most renewable-friendly organization. It’s overly conservative, which causes problems in the dawning new age of broadly distributed and intermittent power. Kerrick Johnson of VELCO, which operates Vermont’s transmission network, told the House committee: “The new steady state for the electricity industry is dynamism. Things are changing fast. There’s an explosion in large and small renewables that’s changing power supply dramatically.”
And that’s the larger point: ISO is adjusting to a new reality, and will have no choice but to keep doing so. The problems will be fixed. And trouble with ISO is no reason to stop building wind farms or other renewables.
the comment section emphasis added:
http://vtdigger.org/2013/04/07…
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Nature (or the earth, or geology – however you want to put it) is engaging in a slow, permanent curtailment of fossil fuels and uranium. We can adjust the management of the grid. We can’t adjust the quantity of fuels in the ground.
We know the end game. Let’s start to get ready for it.
The problem isn’t new renewables (as has been shown time and again elsewhere, renewables are making grids more stable, not less), the problem is that ISO is in bed with the fossil fuel and nuclear industries.
The solution, then, isn’t to tuck them in and sing them a lullaby, but to pull the covers off the bed and kick them all out into the light of day.
ISO is a regulated entity. Time for them to be regulated into the 21st century.
…you’re on the payroll of Green Mountain Power, ISO, and other INDUSTRIAL WIND lobbyists. Everything’s just A-OK with Wind, just like it’s A-OK with Vermont Yankee? Hmmmm…
And these power companies (THE CORPORATE ENERGY REICH) and the PSB and our Legislators have done all the research, investigation and oversight required, and we should all relax and let them tear apart the environment for $$$$$?
Your constant attacks on the Lowell people and your defense of POWER CORPORATIONS puts you right there with Sanders and his frigging F-35s. Noise and property values are relevant and important environmental issues. You sound like a Lib-er-al. And they are discreditable.
Frankly, I’d rather have kestrel back talking about gun control. What we need is Energy Control. Windmills alone won’t solve Global Warming, and I, as a senior citizen working person resent the priggish tone you’ve taken of late to do PR for Industrial Wind and the CAPITALIST ENERGY REICH that wishes to “destroy the environment in order to save it.”
This is an issue I think a High School newsletter would cover better than your one-sided and shrill and over-and-over again editorializing and cheer-leading for Green Mountain Power and our ‘brilliant’ public (bought-and-paid-for) servants.
ENOUGH. Long Live Don Quixote!