Wind Creates Too Much Power For The Grid

Wind turbines are being reduced to a 1/3 of their capacity,
. . . by some grid system operators in:
. . . . . . Vermont,
. . . . . . Maine,
. . . . . . New Hampshire,
. . . . . . Texas, and
. . . . . . parts of the Midwest.
These grid operators are concerned,
. . . that intermittent energy surges, will overload the system.

When relatively little renewable energy is on an electricity grid,
. . . fluctuations in supply can easily be absorbed,
. . . without any battery storage.
As the amount of renewable energy on the grid increases,
. . . existing methods for coping with variability are critical.
. . . Otherwise voltage problems or even blackouts might occur.
The exact point when renewables become a problem,
. . . depends on a host of variables. Often, renewables account for
. . . 20% of the grid capacity without causing trouble.

Several occurrences of grid disconnect have been experienced in recent years.
. . . In the case of a grid disturbance, the wind turbines would disconnect,
. . . from the grid as a safety precaution to protect the turbine.
While these events may have occurred previously,
. . . their effect was relatively minor, since wind generation,
. . . was not a major portion of the overall electricity supply.
At base load conditions, which typically occur at night, wind may provide
. . . 50% of the total power demand, so a disconnect is not
. . . an acceptable reaction to a transmission disturbance.

The Notrees wind farm(biggest battery power system in the world) cost
. . . $44 million and has a
. . . 36 MW capacity, uses some of the most advanced technology
. . . . . . to store the energy being produced by the
. . . 153 MW renewable energy plant that gives
. . . Wal-Mart its electricity.

Ultracapacitors excellent cycling and power capability,
. . . make them ideal energy storage for improving power quality output
. . . of individual wind turbines or full wind farms.
As wind conditions vary, the power output and resulting voltage levels,
. . . can vary up to 10% of the average output power.

Ultracapacitors absorb energy to:
. . . . . . keep voltage spikes down,
. . . . . . release energy to prevent dropouts,
. . . . . . smooth voltage to the grid.
As most events are milliseconds up to a minute,
, , , ultracapacitors provide the most:
. . . . . . cost-effective,
. . . . . . maintenance-free solution
. . . for power quality issues.

Source: Wind   Batteries  Texas  Ultracapacitors