◊ Part of the ‘wind energy’ series of articles ◊
The IESO publishes installed capacity numbers in various locations on their website. Unfortunately none of them agree with each other so I will provide close approximation of the energy supply demographic in Ontario for the end of 2018.
There are two ways the electricity supply mix is typically presented. It can be shown by capacity share and energy share. Capacity share indicates the rated power a resource may contribute to the grid at any instance in time. The energy share is how much a particular technology does contributes to the grid over time. An energy resource may have lots of capacity but if it rarely feeds the grid, its energy share will be small.
A snapshot of wind generation output along with a 48 hour forecast is available from the IESO website. If you visit the site you will most likely see very low outputs and forecasts compared to the 5,250 MW of installed capacity. Factors such as wind speed, maintenance outages, operator-dispatch and congestion management have impact on the production numbers.
Distribution connected wind farms
It is important to note that the data source for the charts is from the IESO and they do not include resources connected to the distribution system as that is outside their jurisdiction. One of the shortcomings of distribution connected resources is that there is no single entity collecting and consolidating energy data for them.
The requirements for distribution connection is specific for each of the 60+ licensed LDCs in Ontario. We know distribution-connected resource capacity through the application and connection process. Any requirement to provide operational data is discretionary on the part of the LDC. Once in operation, these generators just churn away making money for their owners.
Derek
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