Dive Brief:
- Texas wind generation spiked over the weekend and stayed strong into Monday, ultimately sending prices into negative territory.
- Wind farms in the state set a new record of almost 11,500 MW on Sunday night, besting a previous record set in February.
- The grid operator issued a seasonal resource adequacy report this month, finding the region should have sufficient generation available to serve forecasted peak demands this fall and winter.
Dive Insight:
Texas is poised to meet fall and winter demand, and recently set a new wind generation record, according to Platts.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas saw wind generation reach 11,467 MW on Sunday, besting the previous record of 11,154 set in February. The state has the largest amount of installed wind capacity, around 15,500 MW. That carried over into Monday, when real-time prices fell below $0/MWh.
Preparing for the change in seasons, ERCOT earlier this month released its final Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy.
"As we head into the fall and winter seasons, ERCOT expects to meet systemwide peak demands in a broad range of operating conditions," Director of System Planning Warren Lasher said in a statement. "Because weather conditions and resource availability vary widely during these months, actual peak demand conditions could fall in the more extreme scenarios we study for this season."
ERCOT has more than 77,000 MW available overall, and the grd operator said it expects to be well-prepared for the anticipated peak demand of just under 50,000 MW this fall.
