16 Nov 2020 | 22:28 UTC — Houston

SPP sets new wind record of 18.4 GW, tops 60% of the day's output

Highlights

Real-time on-peak LMPs in single digits

Wind likely to have leading share in 2020

After surpassing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas in nameplate wind capacity in October, the Southwest Power Pool reset its record for wind output at 18,442 MW as of 6:20 pm Nov. 14, which equaled 64.4% of the average hourly demand at that time, according to federal data.

Real-time on-peak locational marginal prices averaged $2.43/MWh on Nov. 14 at the North Hub and $12.86/MWh at the South Hub, according to S&P Global Platts' price database.

The North Hub real-time LMP represents a decrease from $6.19/MWh on Nov. 13 and an increase from negative $15.41/MWh on the previous Saturday, Nov. 7. The South Hub real-time LMP represents a decrease from $30.20/MWh on Nov. 13 and an increase from $3.87/MWh on Nov. 7.

SPP's new record tops the previous one, 18,343 MW, set July 17.

On Nov. 14, SPP's wind fleet generated 394.9 GWh, the equivalent of 60.2% of the day's total energy generated of 655.9 GWh, according to SPP load data collected by Platts.

The most that SPP's wind fleet has generated in a day is 403.7 GWh on June 17, which equaled 46.8% of the 865.2 GWh generated in SPP that day.

Surging wind capacity

In October, SPP announced it had reached 27.4 GW of installed wind capacity, compared with less than 25 GW as of the end of October for ERCOT, which had previously led the nation's independent system operators in terms of total wind capacity.

However, ERCOT has another 4.1 GW of wind capacity synchronized to the grid, and ERCOT said it plans to surpass 30 GW in commercial operation by the end of 2020.

SPP holds the record for highest one-day wind penetration at 62% and highest one-hour wind penetration at 72% ever recorded by the Energy Information Administration, and there are states in its footprint that have seen days with more wind energy produced than energy consumed by customers, SPP spokeswoman Meghan Sever said recently.

"During the past 12 months, wind has been our number one fuel source, and we expect wind to overtake coal this calendar year as the number one fuel source in our region," Sever said Oct. 30.