It took all of two weeks into the new year before SPP set new peak records for wind and renewable energy output.
The RTO on Thursday upped its historical highs for wind and renewable energy to 19.9 GW and 21.2 GW, respectively. Those marks broke records set late last year of 19.7 GW and 20.9 GW, respectively.
“An incredible amount of wind generation in our region, all without sacrificing reliability of the grid,” SPP CEO Barbara Sugg tweeted.
Maybe not that incredible, given that wind served 31.3% of SPP’s load last year. The grid operator said that made it the first U.S. RTO or ISO with wind as its No. 1 fuel source.
ERCOT, SPP’s primary competitor in the wind race, saw wind energy meet 22.8% of its load last year, second only to natural gas (45.5%). The Texas grid operator, which meets about 50% more demand than SPP during summer months, also set a record Thursday with 22.9 GW of wind generation.
SPP set six records for wind production in 2020 and four records for renewables. In April, the RTO established a record when wind served 73.2% of load for one interval. (ERCOT’s record for a single interval is 59.3%.)
The grid operator has 26 GW of installed wind capacity on its system, and another 39.9 GW of proposed projects are under some form of study in its generation interconnection queue.
ERCOT has 31.7 GW of installed wind capacity.
