MATCHING WIND RESOURCE IN THE SOUTHERN GREAT PLAINS WITHUTILITY ELECTRICAL LOADING

摘要

A study was conducted to see how well wind generated electricity in the Southern Great Plains matched the utility electrical loading and whether there were ways to improve this match so thatrnrenewable energy could make up a more significant portion (10-30%) of the utility’s total generation. Wind generated electricity is a maximum during April and wind generated electricity is a minimum in August when the utility loading is highest; therefore, these twornmonths were analyzed. Adding as much as 1500 MW -- average utility load for XCEL (SPS region) was 2700 MW -- of wind generated electricity appeared feasible even without the utilityrngrid absorbing excess wind generated electricity if the utility could lower its base load.rnCombining solar energy with wind energy and adding a storage facility resulted in a very goodrnmatch to the utility loading and resulted in little change to the utility’s current operations.