That shows that 32 GW of wind was operating at a capacity factor of 16% which converts to 5.35 GW operating at 100% capacity factor. If you looked up the expected winter capacity factor for wind in ERCOT you would see it was 19.4% which translates to 6.2 GW at 100% capacity factor (Winter summary tab of the Capacity, Demand and Reserves Report December 2020 at Resource Adequacy (ercot.com). That means that on the day you listed, wind was contributing 6.2-5.35=.85 GW less than expected under ERCOT's resource adequacy planning, or 13% less than it was planned to contribute. This is the fundamental concept you are either willfully or just ignorantly failing to grasp, wind never plans or claims to produce anything near it's nameplate, therefore comparing wind nameplate to thermal nameplate in a resource adequacy discussion is pure idiocy!
On the other hand, thermal power was expected to be able to provide 67.5 GW of capacity. It actually provided a peak of roughly 49.5 GW on Feb 15th (2-Day Real Time Gen and Load Data Report backing out non-thermal resources), which is 67.5-57.2=18 GW less, or 26% less than it was planned to contribute.
So the actual data shows that while all resources underperformed their planned capacity under ERCOT's capacity reserve margin calculation on the day you picked, thermal plants underperformed by literally twice as much. And more importantly, since thermal plants make up a much bigger part of the grid, their shortfall impacted the grid by a factor of 21X more than the wind shortfall (.85 GW shortfall from wind versus 18 GW shortfall from thermal)!
So no, the numbers you produced don't support your assertions in the least, they actually support exactly the opposite to a stunning degree. They do demonstrate your gross ignorance of how nameplate capacity is adjusted by capacity factors in resource planning, not to mention your general ignorance of anything related to resource planning.
Most folks would take the opportunity to learn from someone who clearly knows a bunch about something and was willing to take the time to explain it. The only question is if you're someone who values intellectual growth, or lives in a cult of ignorance?
Perfect. So wind will always need a backup due to unfavorable environmental factors? With all that wind capability why can't we get more out of it? I mean the expectations are always quite low. For people bitching about fossil fuels they sure seem to lean on them quite a bit.
Last edited: