The cost of wind: power when we don’t need it

[phantom power]

This begs a question: when energy production figures are published for an energy source, do those figures include electricity that is produced and not used? And are utilities paying for electricity generated even when they aren't using it? I assume that is a contracting question.

On a blustery Labour Day weekend this year, the wind turbines sprinkled across Ontario’s landscape set a record.

That Saturday, they pumped an average of 1,000 megawatts of power into the province’s grid over a seven-hour stretch, the biggest sustained wind output on record. It amounted to about 7 per cent of the power demand at the time.

That was the good news.

The sobering news was that the power flowed into the grid on a cool Saturday afternoon during a holiday weekend when there wasn’t much demand for it.

Despite the flaccid demand, wind generators were getting an average of 12 cents a kilowatt hour for their power, while conventional power producers subject to the wholesale market were getting 7.4 cents.

http://www.thestar.com/printarticle/866129

[madokie]

1. If no one is using the power then the meters are not turning

so if they were pumping all that power into the grid, as you put it, someone was using it somewhere. I know that when I turn off the main breaker in our house the meter stops dead. There is no such thing as letting the electrons pile up somewhere like filling a bucket of them to be poured back into the lines when needed. Pumped hydro, of which we have one locally, is one of those storage batteries but my understanding is there isn't all that many of them around just yet.

[kristopher]

2. To what use do you wish to put the "energy production figures"?

What proposition are you trying to support or what truth are you trying to elicit?