Why Does Wind Energy Get Wasted?

The document challenges the notion that wind curtailment results from an oversupply of wind, using analysis of the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) to show that higher-cost coal plants often remain online while wind is curtailed. It identifies three primary drivers of this waste: inadequate transmission capacity, the practice of coal plants 'self-committing' to avoid being turned off, and a lack of battery storage. The author argues that addressing these infrastructure and operational shortcomings would reduce costs for consumers and lower carbon emissions.

• Analysis of the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) demonstrates that wind curtailment is not driven by an oversupply of wind energy, as higher-cost and more-polluting resources remained operational during all curtailment events.
• The failure to curtail coal instead of wind in the SPP region results in higher costs for electricity customers and increased emissions; avoiding this waste could save over $40 million and prevent nearly 1.2 million short tons of carbon emissions annually.
• Insufficient transmission capacity creates localized congestion that limits the delivery of wind energy to load centers. Examples of successful mitigation include Texas's Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ) and MISO's Multi-Value Projects portfolio.
• Wind curtailment is exacerbated by the inflexible operation of coal-fired power plants, which often use 'self-commitment' to stay online at minimum operating levels, forcing grid operators to curtail flexible wind resources instead.
• The lack of coal flexibility is estimated to cost customers across coal-heavy ISO/RTOs approximately $1 billion per year.
• Battery storage can mitigate short-duration curtailment events, particularly when wholesale market prices are negative, though its effectiveness currently depends on being co-located at wind farms or upstream of transmission constraints.

APA

Union of Concerned Scientists (2021). Why Does Wind Energy Get Wasted? https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/Why-Does-Wind-Energy-Get-Wasted.pdf

Chicago

Union of Concerned Scientists. Why Does Wind Energy Get Wasted? 2021. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/Why-Does-Wind-Energy-Get-Wasted.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Union of Concerned Scientists |title=Why Does Wind Energy Get Wasted? |date=November 2021 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/Why-Does-Wind-Energy-Get-Wasted.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{unionofconcernedscientists2021why, author = {{Union of Concerned Scientists}}, title = {{Why Does Wind Energy Get Wasted?}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2021}, month = nov, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/Why-Does-Wind-Energy-Get-Wasted.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }