PR 44 09

 BPA helps harness wind by installing anemometers
The first wind meter goes in today; many more to come across the region

Troutdale, Ore. - Forecasting Pacific Northwest weather is a challenge in itself, but forecasting when the wind will blow is even more problematic.  Today BPA will install the first of 14 anemometers in the region specifically designed to forecast for wind turbines.  The installation will take place at BPA’s Troutdale substation just off the Columbia River Gorge, an area known for its strong east winds.  The project is part of a much larger plan to help wind developers more accurately forecast this typically unpredictable energy resource.

What:   Installation of BPA’s first anemometer designed to help predict wind energy
When:  10 a.m., Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009
Where: 5201 NE Sundial Road, Troutdale, OR, 97060

Audio/visual opportunities:   Climbers scaling 100-foot tower to install anemometer, close-up of meteorological equipment, high-voltage transmission infrastructure, one-on-one interviews with experts in wind integration.   

Increasing predictability is critical to bringing wind on board as a power resource.  That’s because wind is intermittent.  Electricity from wind can only be harnessed when the wind is blowing.  Because the ups and downs of wind rarely match the demand patterns for electricity, power schedulers rely on other resources, such as hydropower, to compensate for the variable nature of wind generation, which poses challenges for operating the power system.  For example, water must be held in reserve behind the dams to compensate for drop-offs in wind instead of used to generate electricity.  The greater the reserves, the more expensive they are.  These challenges can be mitigated to the degree that wind can become more predictable as a power source. 

The new anemometers will help address those issues while enabling the integration of more wind into the system.  Resembling small torpedoes with propellers at the nose, the wind meters will transmit information about wind direction and speed with great accuracy.  Installers will mount them atop towers at roughly the same surface height as the hub of an average wind turbine, in strategic locations around the region.  Together, they will help paint a picture of what the wind is doing at any given moment and help forecast what it will do within the next hour.
As part of a meteorological system, the anemometers will allow power schedulers to more accurately match up resources with demand and in a much shorter time frame.  That will reduce the need to store extra water behind the dams in reserve, freeing it up for fish operations, secondary power sales and the generation of electricity.

BPA will complete installation of the wind measurement units by October 2009.  The agency will develop a complete wind forecasting system by March 2010, and by September 2010 BPA dispatchers will have display screens of real-time wind generation and next-hour wind forecasts.

Installing the anemometers is one of many projects outlined in BPA’s wind integration plan to help increase the amount of this carbon-free, renewable resource.  The projects will begin to fundamentally change the way the transmission grid is operated and make it much faster and more flexible. 

Wind developers are also making great strides in wind forecasting and this collaboration has helped make the Pacific Northwest a leader in wind integration.

Map of the wind meter sites:  http://www.bpa.gov/corporate/WindPower/docs/14-Met-Sites-Map-No-Transmission.pdf

BPA’s wind website (includes maps and real-time graph of wind energy output):
http://www.bpa.gov/corporate/WindPower/index.cfm

BPA is a not-for-profit federal electric utility that operates a high-voltage transmission grid comprising more than 15,000 miles of lines and associated substations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.  It also markets more than a third of the electricity consumed in the Pacific Northwest. The power is produced at 31 federal dams operated by the U.S. Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation and one nuclear plant in the Northwest and is sold to more than 140 Northwest utilities.  BPA purchases power from seven wind projects and has more than 2,200 megawatts of wind interconnected to its transmission system.

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