Got The Power

We show curtailment of renewables, to identify where building new transmission has the highest value, starting with solar in ERCOT.

Comment

Inspiration

In 2022, we threw away 9% of the solar power produced in Texas. In large part, this is because there's not enough transmission between where the solar power is produced (in the Panhandle), and where it is consumed (in large cities). If only we had more transmission, this power could be put to good use.

What it does

We show the curtailment of solar power by resource. Then, we plot the curtailment for every resource.

How we built it

  1. We collected curtailment data from ERCOT's 60-day SCED data, via Grid Status
  2. Then, we aggregated the curtailment data per resource for the full time period, to produce a total MWh curtailment number
  3. Then, we got latitudes and longitudes for every resource, so we could plot the curtailment on a map

Challenges we ran into

  1. It was hard to connect each resource (solar power plant) to a latitude and longitude. In the end, we asked ChatGPT to create latitudes and longitudes.
  2. When we were nearly done, we realized that the curtailment data was only for 60 days—in February and March. In those months, there's not much curtailment. So, the values are low.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We built an MVP!

What's next for Got The Power

We would love to show curtailment over at least a full year. Then, we'd love to overlay the curtailment with existing transmission line segments. Then, we'd like to calculate the financial value of curtailment. That way, we'd know the value of more transmission: integrating the curtailment over a 10-year period, and multiplying MWh with $/MWh price.

Built With

Share this project:

Updates