Wind

Mystery of Free Energy Storage Apparently Solved by Texas Retailer Offering 100-percent Wind Power Deal

Michael Giberson From the PR desk: HOUSTON, Sept. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Direct Energy has launched New Leaf Energy, a new Texas brand that offers 100 percent renewable, air-pollution-free energy, 100 percent from Texas wind turbines. New Leaf Energy brings expanded product choice in Texas’ green energy market and a variety of plan options that ease the way for residential customers …

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Pat Wood: The Texas Tribune Interview

Michael Giberson Pat Wood, the former FERC chairman and former Texas PUC chairman, was interviewed recently by The Texas Tribune. Wood is surely one of KP‘s favorite ex-regulators, so of course we’re linking to the interview. Here’s just one bit: Wood: … There is also a lot that can be done, particularly on the energy …

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Integrating Variable Energy Resources to the Electric Power Grid

Michael Giberson Are their barriers impeding integration of variable energy resources to the electric grid? FERC wants to know: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) seeks comment on the extent to which barriers may exist that impede the reliable and efficient integration of variable energy resources (VERs) into the electric grid, and whether reforms are …

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What the Fpl 2009 3q Earnings Call Transcript Says About the Texas Retail Market

Michael Giberson Seeking Alpha has begun publishing transcripts of quarterly corporate earnings calls. Typically these calls are discussions presented by the CEO and other corporate officers followed by Q&A with financial analysts.  The calls offer a more “inside look” at company operations than you get from reading newspaper or magazine stories or even trade press.  …

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Feed-in Tariffs Waste Resources and Make It Harder to Meet Europe’s Renewable Energy Goals

Michael Giberson Feed-in tariffs waste resources and make it harder to meet Europe’s renewable energy goals according to a guest post by Omar Abbosh on the Financial Times Energysource blog, at least in the absence of a single, integrated electric power market in Europe.  Abbosh, a managing director at Accenture, notes that generous feed-in tariffs …

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On Integrating Wind Power to the Texas Grid

Michael Giberson Nik Rod at Life in Energy discusses the integration of wind power to the ERCOT-managed grid, drawing on a new paper by Ramteen Sioshansi and David Hurlbut titled,“Market Protocols in ERCOT and Their Effect on Wind Generation”: How do you integrate intermittent wind generating resources in a market with set protocols and rules that are perfectly …

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Power Consumers in Ercot Should Keep an Eye on Puct Rulemaking Project 34577

Michael Giberson Earlier in July, the Public Utility Commission of Texas issued a proposed amendment to its CREZ regulations (the regulations governing the building of transmission to better support development of renewable energy in Texas). The main focus of the proposal is to refine and clarify the process by which the Commission ensures sufficient renewable …

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World’s First Utility-Scale, Zero-Emissions Hydrogen Power Plant?

Michael Giberson The Associated Press is reporting that a New Mexico company, Jetstream Wind (WARNING: annoying animated introduction accompanied by equally annoying dramatic soundtrack), has broken ground on what it claims will be “the world’s first utility-scale, zero-emissions hydrogen power plant.” According to the company website, their plan is to use renewable energy to produce …

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No “Magic Number” for Renewable Power

Michael Giberson Peter Behr, reporting for ClimateWire in an article online at the New York Times, captures some of the discussion surrounding the recent NERC report on integrating renewable power to the transmission grid [NERC Press Release] [NERC Executive Summary] [Full NERC Report]. The vast expansion of wind and solar power planned by the Obama …

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Are Wind Power Producers the Low Cost Suppliers of Frequency Control Service in Ercot?

Michael Giberson ERCOT tries to keep the electric power grid in Texas operating at 60 Hertz (i.e., 60 cycles per second, Hertz is abbreviated “Hz”), like the rest of North America, and a few other places in the world.  If electrical load grows faster than power supply, the system frequency will fall below 60 Hz; …

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