A Texas tale of two winds
It was a curious stretch of time for wind power generation in Texas.
From mid-August to mid-September, the availability of wind generation in the most heavily-stocked market did a virtual U-turn.
Mid-August, as usual, was hot, stultifyingly so. On Thursday, August 13, at 1:00 a.m., demand for power in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas market was 43,237 MW. At that hour, the turbines were turning, generating 3,342 MW, meeting 7.7% of the early-morning demand.
Then, at 10:00 a.m., demand for power rose to 52,322 MW. However, the wind just wasn’t there. The wind turbines produced just 709 MW, meeting just 1.3% of the demand. By 4:00 p.m., with temperatures over 100 degrees, demand had reached 67,713 MW, while the wind turbines supplied a scant 844.61 MW, or 1.2% of the total.
The next day, August 14, the drop in wind generation was even more dramatic. ERCOT wind power production at 1:00 am in the morning, August 14, was 6,341 MW. By 10:00 am, wind generation had dropped to 777 MW.
Then, a month later, things were quite different.
