Bonneville Power Administration's (BPA) and the region's wind plants ran at more than 90% capacity, compared with the normal average of 30%. Recent advancements by BPA and the wind community that made this possible include better wind forecasting more opportunity to buy and sell wind power, synching wind turbines with the region's hydroelectric dams, and stronger coordination among utilities.
This year for the first time BPA's new "within-hour" scheduling mechanism allowed the purchase of wind energy available through sudden bursts of "extra" wind that would ordinarily cause turbines to shut down. Read full BPA Journal here
