Ross Baldick PhD
Ross Baldick PhD provides strategic consulting to the electricity industry. Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas, he is the author of "Applied Optimization: Formulation and Algorithms for Engineering Systems."
Tag Archives: wind
How much storage is even feasible?
In response to my last post, about the challenges of wind integration, a reader asked: “Is building storage of this scale even feasible?” If you had asked me in 2000, “Could wind get to 18GW wind in ERCOT by 2016?” … Continue reading
ERCOT: meeting the challenges of wind integration
Texas has, by far, the highest penetration of wind among the three main US interconnections (Eastern, Western, and Texas), and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has met the challenges of wind integration. ERCOT is set to get even … Continue reading
Renewables research collaboration in Chile
In May I had the pleasure of visiting colleagues at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and the Universidad de Chile, in Santiago, Chile. Like Texas, Chile is moving toward ever higher levels of renewable power, ours in wind, theirs … Continue reading
The Cost of Wind’s Ancillary Services
LA Times reporter Ralph Vartabedian recently wrote about the use of natural gas generation to provide electricity when the wind is not blowing. He cites an afternoon in California when the wind power production was only 1% of the rated … Continue reading
What’s a Flat State to Do?
As we move to higher levels of renewable generation, electric generation becomes much less controllable. We need to find new ways to provide control, and energy storage plays a part in many electricity systems to help with matching supply to … Continue reading
Expanding Texas Wind Expensive for Reducing Emissions
Texas already has the highest penetration of wind in the nation, and now the state has embarked on a significant expansion of its electric transmission network in west Texas to support new wind farms. How cost-effective is this expansion for … Continue reading
Carbon emissions: Why can’t Texas be more like Germany?
Energiewende, German for “energy transition,” was the theme of the “Texas-Germany Bilateral Dialogue on Challenges and Opportunities in the Electricity Market” conference held in Austin in late February. The conference was organized by the German American Chambers of Commerce and … Continue reading →