Oregon Wind farms forced to cut back power generation.

nsaspook
nsaspook Solar Expert Posts: 396 ✭✭✭
in Wind Power Generation #1
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/05/bpa_says_it_will_tamp_down_win.html
the Bonneville Power Administration said Friday it will pull the plug on wind farms at times when excess generation threatens to swamp the system's ability to handle it.

http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2011-05-18-Wind%20Power%20Halt/id-818cafb2ffb54692aaf95b7a5bb35fc9
The Bonneville Power Administration said Wednesday it followed through on a plan announced last week to shut down most of the region's power generation except that from government dams now running at full capacity.

The Colombia River is at flood stage now and the spring melt hasn't really started so expect more shutdowns.
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  • peskeybobcat
    peskeybobcat Registered Users Posts: 7 ✭
    #2
    Re: Oregon Wind farms forced to cut back power generation.

    Send it to California there is always a bureaucrat there that will wast it for you..
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  • mike95490
    mike95490 Solar Expert Posts: 9,583 ✭✭✭✭✭
    #3
    Re: Oregon Wind farms forced to cut back power generation.
    peskeybobcat wrote: »
    Send it to California there is always a bureaucrat there that will wast it for you..

    I thought it had to be from certified green windmills with no spotted owl feathers.

    Put some windmills up around Sacramento and let the blowhards power the state.
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  • mr.radon
    mr.radon Solar Expert Posts: 158 ✭✭✭✭✭
    #4
    Re: Oregon Wind farms forced to cut back power generation.

    Drove from Settle, WA to Redmond, OR this weekend and saw the HUGE wind farms. All the turbines were cranking when i blew by them at a high rate of speed. They were complaining out here very loudly at the state of affairs. We need a first rate electrical grid if we want to prevent stuff like this from happening again. Sad, but the clean energy developers should have spent a little more money and upgraded the grid before throwing all those windmills up and not realize the impacts of an above average snow fall.

    The fact is they are already killing fish in the rivers downstream of the dams because of the shear amount of water they have to release.
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  • TheBackRoads
    TheBackRoads Solar Expert Posts: 274 ✭✭
    #5
    Re: Oregon Wind farms forced to cut back power generation.

    Can't they export the energy instead of shutting them down?
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  • waynefromnscanada
    waynefromnscanada Solar Expert Posts: 3,009 ✭✭✭✭
    #6
    Re: Oregon Wind farms forced to cut back power generation.
    TheBackRoads wrote: »
    Can't they export the energy instead of shutting them down?

    The grid as it now exists, can't handle excess power being produced in one geographical area. A better, more robust grid could transmit excess power from that area, to other parts of the continent where it's needed. But alas, that better, more robust grid does not exist. Will it ever? Who knows.
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  • stephendv
    stephendv Solar Expert Posts: 1,571 ✭✭
    #7
    Re: Oregon Wind farms forced to cut back power generation.

    They're facing a similar problem in Germany, now that they've decided to scrap all their nuclear facilities by 2020 and supplement at least some of it with wind power from the north sea. Trouble is they don't have the power lines necessary to transport it all to the industrial south yet.
    They may have to run new lines and huge pilons through the naturally protected forests and mountains in the centre which is going to p$ss off the same people who campaigned for them to shut down the nukes and switch to wind!
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  • nsaspook
    nsaspook Solar Expert Posts: 396 ✭✭✭
    #8
    Re: Oregon Wind farms forced to cut back power generation.

    We have a huge amount of excess power.
    baltwg.png

    http://www.bpa.gov/corporate/AgencyTopics/ColumbiaRiverHighWaterMgmnt/
    http://info.bpa.gov/afterhours.aspx
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  • nsaspook
    nsaspook Solar Expert Posts: 396 ✭✭✭
    #9
    Re: Oregon Wind farms forced to cut back power generation.
    TheBackRoads wrote: »
    Can't they export the energy instead of shutting them down?

    http://www.sustainablebusinessoregon.com/articles/2011/05/bpa-bashed-at-wind-conference-for.html
    "We have not been able to find users for this power, even as far away as California," Milstein said, adding that BPA has offered free power during times of excess to anyone within reach of its transmission system.

    They can't even give it away.
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  • westbranch
    westbranch Solar Expert Posts: 5,183 ✭✭✭✭
    #10
    Re: Oregon Wind farms forced to cut back power generation.
    TheBackRoads wrote: »
    Can't they export the energy instead of shutting them down?

    Don't forget BC just to the North... we also have huge amounts of excess generating capacity and production due to getting that excess water in the Columbia first!

    Spring melt has not really started here yet, the snow pack is still increasing in the mountains!

    As a gauge, the Fraser river is now at its highest ever in over 30 years, for me at least, and the peak usually occurs in mid June , it exceeded all previous highs here over 2 weeks ago... over a month early ans the levels are still rising.

    This will be an interesting year for filling the dams and trying to use all that seasonally periodic excess power.
     
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  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    #11
    Re: Oregon Wind farms forced to cut back power generation.

    I drove through the Fraser River canyon at the beginning of May; almost no water in the river. Now it's going for record highs. How quickly things change!

    Alberta has just had to do the same thing: shut down the wind turbines to run the hydro dams at full capacity in order to reduce the water levels behind the dams.

    As usual, the problem is storage: there's no good way to save up the huge amounts of power available at peak production times for use when the water is low and the winds don't blow.
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  • mike95490
    mike95490 Solar Expert Posts: 9,583 ✭✭✭✭✭
    #12
    Re: Oregon Wind farms forced to cut back power generation.

    Use the windpower to refrigerate the snowpack.
    Powerfab top of pole PV mount | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
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  • TheBackRoads
    TheBackRoads Solar Expert Posts: 274 ✭✭
    #13
    Re: Oregon Wind farms forced to cut back power generation.

    Interesting... I guess I just assumed that the excess power was sold to nearby power company etc.. :blush: fooled me!:-)
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  • russ
    russ Solar Expert Posts: 593 ✭✭
    #14
    Re: Oregon Wind farms forced to cut back power generation.

    My brother recently retired from working as a powerhouse operator for PG&E in Oregon. He has lots of interesting stories to tell about the difficulties in managing load while maintaining river flow and saving water.

    They really put a lot of thought and effort into maximizing the yield of the river flow - it don't happen by accident. There are state and federal requirements about the river plus the fact that water above the dam is money in the bank.

    Wind has to complicate the load manager's life to a great degree.

    Russ
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  • Frxddy
    Frxddy Solar Expert Posts: 113 ✭✭✭✭
    #15
    Re: Oregon Wind farms forced to cut back power generation.

    Here in Maine wind farms are just catching on. It didn't take long to realize the grid won't support all the power. The idea was to send the power south, but the fact is most is going north to Canada. They have plans for a bazillion dollar main trunk but that is years away at best. Now they want to put windmills floating 5 miles off shore. That has to go somewhere too!
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  • nsaspook
    nsaspook Solar Expert Posts: 396 ✭✭✭
    #16
    Re: Oregon Wind farms forced to cut back power generation.

    Update on the generator wars.
    http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/06/bpa_utilities_and_wind_develop.html

    http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/06/wind_farm_owners_ask_federal_a.html
    This part is unreal.
    Bird said BPA's right to curtail transmission for reliability reasons is not in dispute. But wind farm owners contend there is adequate demand and transmission capacity to send power to California if BPA paid utilities there to shut off their own power plants, a situation known as negative pricing. They believe that full compensation for curtailments should include not just substitute power, but the value of foregone tax and renewable energy credits that are only generated when wind turbine blades are spinning and delivering power to the grid.

    BPA has refused to pay negative prices as it says doing so would shift costs for exporting wind energy to the 140 publicly owned utilities who buy power from the agency.
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