EnergyAging grid limiting exploitation of wind power potential

Energy firms and utility companies continue to invest in wind power, as evident in the increasing number of wind turbines on the prairies of the Midwest, but the aging infrastructure of the nation’s power grid is limiting the potential of this clean energy source.

The Miami Herald reports that in 2012, installed wind-generation capacity totaled 60 gigawatts nationwide — this is 5 percent of the U.S. production capacity, according to the U.S Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The Department of Energy aims for wind energy is to supply 20 percent of U.S electricity needs by 2030, but 135 gigawatts of potential wind production awaits development and connection to the grid.

“Therehasn’t been a lot of investment in the grid for the last two decades,” said Michael Goggin, a senior analyst at the American Wind Energy Association, the industry’s main trade group. “We just don’t have a strong grid that’s built out in the parts of the country where there are a lot of wind resources.”

The problem in expanding the energy capacity lies not just in investment in transmission capacity. The learning curve and the rapid growth of wind power have outpaced government response time. High level of congestion and bottleneck when transmitting wind energy can be attributed to deficiencies in the nation’s power grid and differing state policies on the placement of transmission lines. The Southwest Power Pool, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) regional transmission operator in the area, said it experienced four to five transmission curtailments — periods of high congestion that shut down wind units — per week. Over the past eight months, those curtailments have affected up to seven sites. Much of the power wind farms were expecting to generate is not making it to the market.

There are proposed projects to expand grid capacity, but opponents of wind energy fear an increase in transmission costs will mean higher utility prices for consumers. Natalie Hocken, an official at PacifiCorp, a power company in the Northwest, responds that “A large transmission investment will have some impact on our rates just like any other capital investment would.” Along with infrastructure, government has fallen behind on policy for building new transmission lines. For PacifiCorp, obtaining permits takes at least three years at the federal level alone. Including the permitting process, constructing transmission projects can take up to eight years. The Herald notes that when grid policies were developed, utility companies owned the generation and transmission infrastructure required to deliver electricity. Today, a new competitive market structure means the same company does not own both the transmission and generation.

FERC acts as a backstop in policy disputes. Under a new policy, the commission is working to make the development of transmission lines between states easier for utilities.

For the wind industry, tackling transmission is the key to tapping a vast resource. If the industry does not increase capacity, utilities might be stuck watching their resource blow away.