"Wind power is growing as a generation resource in New York State. The number of wind plants operating in the state has increased significantly over the past two years. Wind-powered projects also comprise a dominant portion of the proposed new generation projects in the New York Independent System Operator’s (NYISO) interconnection queue.
Wind capacity in New York is projected to grow to more than 1,200 MW by the summer of 2009. The projects currently under review in the interconnection queue indicate the potential for another 6,500 MW of wind capacity to be developed by 2011.
Due to the location of these resources and their intermittent nature, this presents a new challenge for grid and market operations in New York. Many of the proposed wind plants are seeking to interconnect in concentrated clusters located in the northern and western regions of the state. These regions are supported by an existing transmission network that will not be capable of delivering all the potential wind output to the load centers in the southeastern regions of the state.
The expected level of wind penetration as well as the concentration or clustering of the wind plants in areas of the grid not built to accommodate that level of generation may require that wind output be re-dispatched when system security and reliability is threatened. Dispatching other resources around wind plant output may not alone be adequate to efficiently manage the expected levels of wind generation in New York. Long-term solutions may include the need for additional transmission to move wind power, energy storage devices to absorb excess power in off-peak hours, and new operational rules to protect system security."
Read the full text of this interesting white paper commissioned by NISO.
