Wind and sun
The rapid adoption of renewable energy has transformed Oklahoma’s power grid and left utility operators working to keep up with future changes.
The rapid adoption of renewable energy has transformed Oklahoma’s power grid and left utility operators working to keep up with future changes.
“If the world changes as much as it has in the past five years, we won’t recognize it five years from now,” Gary Roulet, CEO of Western Farmers Electric Cooperative, said last week at the 2018 Emerging Technology Conference in Oklahoma City.
Western Farmers and other Oklahoma utilities are part of the Southwest Power Pool, which oversees the power grid throughout Oklahoma and in parts of 13 other states.
The region has added thousands of megawatts of renewable energy over the past few years, with most of that power coming from wind farms. Another 4,500 megawatts of wind and 2,500 megawatts of solar are planned over the next five years.
“If that happens, the market share for coal and natural gas will decrease by about 25 percent,” Roulet said. “You’re going to continue to wedge fossil fuels out of the mix so that in the next five or six years, we’ll see renewables serve about 40 percent of the region’s electricity. Coal and natural gas will have a harder time in the market, filling a smaller and smaller piece of the pie because of the cheaper and cheaper market for renewables.”
To support the rapid growth of renewable energy throughout the region, Southwest Power Pool utilities invested billions of dollars on transmission lines over the past decade.
“Many people way, way underestimated how fast renewables would grow and how low the price would go,” Roulet said.
Utilities now are looking for ways to accommodate using a large percentage of renewable energy generation, which can dip sharply when the wind slows or the sun sets or is covered by clouds.
One common option is to use renewables together with natural gas-powered generators, which can be ramped up and down with relative speed. Newer such generators are designed to adjust quickly, and utilities are looking at ways to better anticipate when additional fossilfuel power is needed.
Utilities also are looking at other ways to smooth out renewable power generation.
“My guess is we’ll look at a battery project soon,” Roulet said. “When you match a battery project with a solar project and take advantage of solar tax credits, you can add a battery with as much as 40 or 80 megawatts of storage. I think you’re going to see those quickly. None of this is going to go away.”