Wind Systems Integration - Energy Storage and Wind Power

From Jeff Anthony, Manager - Utility Programs, American Wind Energy Association :

One issue that often comes up relative to wind power an understanding how it works for utilities, is how wind power is addressed from a variable energy output standpoint (the fact that wind projects are not "dispatchable" like other resources) and whether wind power projects need to be "backed-up one-for-one" on a megawatt for megawatt basis (they do not). Here are some resources that are extremely useful to explain these hard-to-grasp topics.

Two very useful Webpages with lots of to various resources and documents that can help explain these two topics: wind integration and reliability and wind power.

Another very useful website is this new webpage on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory website and wind power and wind integration
-- which also explains why energy storage is not needed at this time.

And here is what utilities have to say -- those that are actively involved in addressing wind integration efforts (as opposed to utilities who are not involved with wind power or who are not making an effort to get involved).

I hope you find these webpages and the links to various documents useful. This is a complex issue and so AWEA is available to assist further in understanding these issues at any time.