Texas reports record amount of wind power generation

Texas wind energy hit a new generation record on Monday as steady winds through West Texas and the Panhandle kept the state’s wind turbines spinning.

The record 17,920 megawatts of wind power generation was hit at 3:32 p.m. Monday and made up more than 40 percent of power generation in the territory covered by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, Texas’ grid operator.
Wind speeds in San Angelo and Lubbock, areas with large numbers of wind turbines, were recorded average at up to 19 miles per hour on Monday, according to the U.S. National Weather Service.

That beat the prior record of 17,542 megawatts recorded by ERCOT in February. The grid operator manages 90 percent of power demand in Texas.
While wind had a record generation day Monday it did not beat its share of supplied electricity to the grid. That record was set on Oct. 27, 2017, when the 15,408 megawatts of wind generation made up more than 54 percent of power generation.

Total installed wind generation in Texas is more than 21,000 megawatts. Much of Texas’ wind generation is in West Texas and the Panhandle.