Wind tops 25 percent of load on main Texas grid

Wind-generated electricity briefly topped 25 percent of total electricity supply on the main Texas utility network March 1, and provided 17-23 percent for a roughly 24-hour period on March 2-3, according to data supplied by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the system.

The high point was not quite a record either in percentage of supply or total instantaneous power from wind for the ERCOT system, which reached a wind penetration of 27.97% in early December 2011 and a power record of 7,400 megawatts (MW) in October 2011.  Still, it serves as a reminder that wind farms can generate a substantial amount of the electricity on a large, modern utility system.

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