US Plain States hit the record: More than 52% wind energy

Wind Industry Profile of

A region stretching from Montana to Texas set a new record this week, hitting a mark many considered impossible just a few years ago: wind supplied the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) with 52 percent of its electricity on Sunday.

The SPP is a grid operator for parts of 14 states and manages over 60,000 miles of transmission lines. Sunday’s high-water mark bests the previous record of 49.2 percent, achieved last spring “Ten years ago we thought hitting even a 25 percent wind-penetration level would be extremely challenging, and any more than that would pose serious threats to reliability,” said Bruce Rew, Southwest Power Pool’s vice president of operations. “Now we have the ability to reliably... ... More: Official Press Release AWEA - Into the Wind Blog

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US, Plain States, Midwest, wind energy, record