[billva]

You need to ask the Bonneville Power Authority about that. They had a near melt down of the NW Grid this year when the wind suddenly came up and kicked up idle wind mills and BPA had to dump water to prevent a overload. We found out at that time that the wind generators had preference even though it cost several cents a KW more than Hydro...

Perhaps, but the grid has other problems from time to time also and designs changes can be made to compensate.

Wind can and should have a prominent place in our power future.

[tubebender]

Make all the changes to the grid you want but but someone must be on the other end using it or you have a overload...

[SteamShovel]

Wind can and should have a prominent place in our power future.

Why should it have a prominent place?

The real answer is, it should have an appropriate place in our power future.

The level to which wind or solar power plays a role should NOT be in the hands of politicians or enviro-mental nut cases. It should be in the hands of people who understand the grid, and the issues surrounding load and power generation.

As far as I am concerned, engineers need to take back the energy issue from the crazies before it is too late.