As if this is somehow going to make wind power more practicable.
If anyone out there actually thinks that “smart grid” technology is anything other than a Trojan horse to allow Big Brother to ration our electricity on an individual basis, stand up and be heard.
“...Smart Grid Project Will Let Wind Farms “Talk” To Appliances...”
So they can tell the appliance: “Oh, I already raised your rates last week.”
Hours for Gas turbines to spin up? More like 13 minuets from a dead stop to full load. Natural Gas slow speed piston engine generators go from cold to full load in less than 5 minuet as well. These engines are keep at 50% load spinning reserves ready in a instant to go 100% piston engines are much much more efficient at part load than turbines. Plus are more efficient at peak load too. This is what currently backs up wind power all over the world. These fast plants are expensive to idle as when they are off they generate no revenue. Hydro electric is seconds from low to high load this is why in Central Texas at all the lakes there are huge warning signs are the tail races of the turbines because at any given moment they could come rushing full boar, LCRA has 200 MW of instant peak power on tap.
http://www.powergenworldwide.com/index/display/articledisplay/5501231356/articles/power-engineering-international/volume-18/issue-2/features/gas-fired_back-up.html
The best way to get wind power to the far off cities is to use HVDC light along the existing hwy right of ways these systems have no external magnetic fields and can be buried so no pylons. HVDC has already proven to be cheaper than HVAC at distances over 500km. Texas is blessed with HUGE wind reserves which should be exploited as soon as they are cost competitive. ERCOT decides where and how distribution systems gets built in Texas not the utilities.