The wind howled, the turbines turned and, for the first time ever, the wind power blowing through the region's electric grid surpassed the 1,000-megawatt mark. That's enough energy to power nearly 700,000 homes.
“When the wind's really kicking, we're getting 1,180 megawatts,” said Doug Johnson, “which is pretty darned good for a clean energy alternative.”
Johnson is a spokesman for the Bonneville Power Administration, the quasi-governmental agency that markets power produced at 31 federal dams in the Columbia River Basin, some 40 percent of all the electricity used in the Pacific Northwest.
Those hydropower plants include headwater reservoirs such as Montana's Hungry Horse and Libby dams, which provide at-cost electricity to 140 utility companies in Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.
Oregon is where PPM Energy recently fired up its latest wind project, the Klondike III, at about the same time the grid crossed that 1,000-megawatt mark.
Wind remains a small fraction of BPA's total energy output, but a 20-year regional plan calls for adding 5,000 or more megawatts of wind. That, analysts say, would make wind a major player in meeting future electrical demand throughout the Northwest.
The long-term plan, called the Northwest Wind Integration Action Plan, concludes that “the region's existing power system can most likely accommodate the 6,000 megawatts of wind energy anticipated by 2024 - or perhaps much sooner, given the current pace of development.”
That's power enough for five Seattles, and the equivalent of two big nuclear plants.
When it blows.
Trouble is, since hitting a high of nearly 1,200-wind megawatts, the low has dipped “to anywhere from zero to 20 megawatts,” Johnson said. “It's very hit and miss.”
Which means wind must be “firmed up” by consistent power sources, such as hydro, coal or natural gas.
Still, Johnson said, the 1,000-megawatt milestone is an important one, and proves the potential of wind as an important part of a diversified power portfolio.
BPA chief Steve Wright has said consumer demand for clean and renewable energy sources has never been higher. He also is keeping an eye on state and federal regulators, who are beginning to require investments in wind and other alternatives as a curb against continued global climate change.
(Wind power emissions are zero. By comparison, a 250-megawatt coal-fired plant proposed for construction near Great Falls, at a cost of about $700 million, would produce an estimated 2.8 million tons of greenhouse gases each year.)
Already, lawmakers in Montana, Washington and Oregon have passed legislation requiring utilities to phase in additional renewable energy sources over time.
“This is an important accomplishment for the region,” Brian Silverstein said of the 1,000-megawatt flow. He is BPA's vice president for planning and asset management. “Within just a few years, we've seen more wind projects come on line, and BPA has been working quickly to connect the new projects into the regional power grid. States are calling for adding more clean, renewable sources of energy to the region's power supply and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
Silverstein called the latest benchmark “clear evidence that power providers are responding and taking action to address the region's changing needs.”
Indeed, since BPA first began connecting wind projects to its grid in the late 1990s, the growth has been remarkable. It began as a slow breeze - up until fall of 2005 the peak wind flow through the grid was just 250 megawatts - but then blew itself into a storm of wind project development.
By the end of 2005, Johnson said, the peak had hit 475 megawatts, and in 2006 it hit 775.
“In the past year or so,” Johnson said, “we've gone from nine wind projects online to 13. It's a huge increase.”
Currently, he said, the region has a maximum capacity of about 1,400-wind megawatts, assuming the wind is blowing everywhere and the plants are running full tilt. The maximum actually transmitted at any one time, however, was that 1,180 megawatts hit during the holidays.
The wind, though, is not entirely free. In addition to plant construction costs, BPA often also must build new transmission lines and substations to deliver the power from those far-flung wind farms and onto the grid.
It is also complicated - and thus expensive - to manage the grid with such notoriously fickle energy on board.
Currently, Johnson said, BPA is working with utilities and others in the energy business to develop technologies and procedures to better manage the variability of wind power.
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