It's all about the profits.

without being specific about why. The operator of Lowell is going to install a synchronous condenser near the Lowell plant. Apparently this would be used to correct the line power factor and increase it's capacity. The correction would only be on the line between the generators and the condenser.

without having to stress carrying capacity.

I just can't imagine not using available wind power.

But David Blittersdorf, a wind energy developer, said last week’s cutbacks on Lowell don’t make sense since the demand for electricity was high both region-wide and in the Northeast Kingdom.

“The idea behind the curtailment on Lowell is that they have this system problem and a weak grid. But if your load’s right there, that doesn’t matter,” he said. “You want to supply it with the generation that’s right there. It’s not going hundreds of miles away, which a weak grid would have a problem with. So I consider what they’re doing really bizarre.”

and the wind operator says the synchronous condenser would be near Lowell.

If they are reaching max output other sources are not as easy to shut down and restart (turbines also have less staff generally that would be idled in such a case).

We had a lot of controls in place to monitor usage and shut down windmills automatically given certain conditions (and based on a maintenance schedule which tied into rotations/etc).

In hydro/coal vs wind it takes a lot less work to shut down a few turbines.

Just my experience.

That would require two humans to talk and you KNOW what that is...

Because if this could be, what else might be? Never mind - don't go there!

you do not want sources which vary with wind speed which would cause other generators to have to throttle up and down to compensate for wind variability.