The Value of Wind -> Electrical Energy from the Breamlea Wind Generator
			  (update: March 1996)

Accurate data logging has now been in progress continuously for 8 months at
the Breamlea wind generator. With the benefit of additional data from the
Victorian Power Exchange, it is quite feasible to correlate the two data
sets for each half-hour interval of the electricity trading pool. The
results are set out in the table below:

Date           Energy Export   Victorian                 Powercor's *
.              Breamlea kWh    demand (MW)   SMP ($/MW)  avoided cost

July 1995         7661.0          4845         62.44       $500.44
August 1995       7155.6          4695         38.17       $260.02
Sept. 1995        8296.9          4613         29.35       $267.82
October 1995     11159.4          4459         40.67       $459.69
November 1995    10362.3          4384         37.15       $414.26
December 1995     9937.0          4182         50.25       $479.57
January 1996     12266.9          4251          8.96       $127.92
February 1996    10247.7          4531         12.72       $117.78

Totals/Averages  77086.8          4495         34.96      $2627.50


Notes: 
*       Demand and pool prices have been moderately low, but are not
unexpected, considering new market structure with competition from
generators, while retail prices are yet to experience discounting for the
majority of users.

*       * The avoided cost is not simply the product of kWh x SMP figures
in the table, but rather the TRUE value calculated on a half-hourly basis.
In this case the difference is hardly significant, and for the 8-month
period is only 2.5% greater than a simple multiplication of the monthly
averages. The main point is to demonstrate that Breamlea energy is worth
AT LEAST the time-weighted SMP to the local distribution business, and is
sometimes of greater value than the volume-weighted SMP.  The savings to
Powercor (above) do not take into account TUOS/DUOS charges or transmission 
losses, which would increase the worth of the savings to 6 to 8% above the
values in the table.

*       For larger wind installations/farms there would be the additional
benefits for the "poles & wires" side of the business in  delaying or
cancelling the costly upgrading of the distribution feeder in which the
wind power is embedded. This assumes that the feeder (or section of it)
would never be required to export to the rest of the network higher power
levels than it was importing prior to the installation of the wind farm.
Times of peak demand with no wind would obviously constitute a problem that
may be addressable by demand management.

*       Third-generation wind farms with a smart solid-state interface to
the grid have significant value-added potential if configured to perform
real-time correction of power factor.

*       Feedback, comments and criticisms of this document would be
appreciated. 

			Michael Gunter   Breamlea Operations Group
					 Alternative Technology Assocation
Contactable Phone:(03)9376 7515  
	    Fax: (03)9419 1678
	    Email: mickgg@suburbia.net
	    Internet: http://suburbia.net/~ata/breamlea.htm