VT Governor Pete Shumlin gets schooled on wind power variability [View all]

[wtmusic]

Shumlin calls on grid operator to stop cutting Lowell wind power

"Gov. Peter Shumlin is urging the New England power grid operator to stop limiting production from Green Mountain Power’s Lowell Mountain wind project during peak demand times for electricity.

New England and Vermont power grid officials say that GMP’s 21-turbine wind project was ordered to reel in generation during a recent heat wave because the project is incomplete and is connected to a weak point in the grid.

'It’s really pretty simple: We can’t set the system up so that an overload would occur,' Rourke said. 'There’s a limit to the amount of power we can transfer out of that area. … We always work to make sure the system runs in a reliable way. Having an event that could lead to a loss of customers is not a reliable outcome. So, we have to limit the amount of energy that the generators up in that part of the state are injecting into the network.'"

http://vtdigger.org/2013/07/28/lowell-power-curtailed-despite-high-power-demand-during-recent-new-england-heat-wave/

Lowell Mountains wind project: The great divider

"On Wednesday, Robbin Clark and Justin Lindholm walked around the outskirts of the blasted out platform supporting turbine 5. They looked incredulously at the bare rock that was once forest.

Clark lives less than two miles from the project.

'It’s a huge disaster for Vermont,” she said. “The energy is not in demand. We are selling the renewable energy credits to other states that pollute. It’s just not solving the carbon emissions issue. There’s nothing about this project that makes sense.'"

http://vtdigger.org/2013/07/04/lowell-mountains-wind-project-the-great-divider/