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> wind power genuinely became too cheap to meter. No, it didn’t. The grid must always be in balance. Wind power production can’t be ramped up or down as needed
by sgjohnson 3y ago
> wind power genuinely became too cheap to meter.
No, it didn’t. The grid must always be in balance. Wind power production can’t be ramped up or down as needed. Overproduction could cause a surge on the grid, that would in fact be a massive liability for the power company.
Power became free for those periods because it was the cheapest option for the producer.
Kind of how it happened when crude oil was trading at negative $57 per bbl. The contracts came with an obligation that was impossible to meet, thus it was easier to pay someone to take them off your hands.
- ViewTrick1002 3y agoWind power can of course be ramped down, the problem in this case is CFD contracts causing over supply since they are guaranteed to get paid. In better functioning markets negative prices generally stem from large thermal producers, nuclear and coal, being unable to ramp fast enough and thus bid negative so they can produce at 100% when prices are expected to increase again.
- Ekaros 3y agoWind power certainly can be ramped down or up. At least on level of individual turbines. Otherwise they could not lock them in storms when wind speeds are too high. If it can be done with higher wind speeds, nothing prevents doing it at lower. Issue is that they got insane contracts that pay beyond market rates.
- 7thaccount 3y agoYou can feather the blades or stuff like that, but you can't just ramp them up or down like a natural gas plant and keep them there. It's still weather dependent without some source of fuel.