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Connecting wind generated power to the grid is a growing service provided by National Grid in New York.

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Spanning 21,000 acres, 120 wind turbines on the Maple Ridge wind farm dot the landscape across Lewis County, N.Y., near the town of Lowville about 75 miles northeast of Syracuse.

Wind, a renewable energy source and one of the green energy offerings by National Grid suppliers, is becoming more prevalent across New York state, a leader in the development of wind farms. Currently, more than 20 new major wind interconnection projects are proposed across National Grid’s service territory in the state. Once they’re built, the company will connect them to the New York bulk power system.

“The developer owns the turbines,” explained Doug Fuess, account manager for Transmission Commercial Services. “But when they want to connect to the bulk power system, we start the interconnection service by specifying the configuration and system upgrade requirements. We need to ensure that we can maintain the integrity of the electric system once the turbines are connected.”

Maple Ridge is located just downwind of the eastern shore of Lake Ontario, an area that experiences strong lake-effect weather patterns. With the completion of this first phase of the project, the wind farm will more than quadruple the total installed wind capacity in the state, producing 198 MW from the 1.65 MW turbines. It is expected that 75 additional turbines will be added to the project in 2007, increasing the total output to 321 MWs.

“I believe it’s the largest wind farm east of the Mississippi,” said Herb Schrayshuen, vice president of Transmission Commercial Services.

“Working on this project has been a great learning experience,” said Fuess. “In the future, when other wind farms need to be connected, we can be a resource to other utilities. We’ve learned what problems to look for and ways to improve the interconnection. We are the only New York utility that has connected wind generation of this size to the grid.”

SIDE BAR

Maple Ridge Wind Farm Facts

• 120 towers
• Towers are 230 feet tall with 130-foot blades, making the total height at the blade’s highest point about 360 feet
• Spans 21,000 acres, or 32 square miles
• The actual footprint of the turbines uses less than one percent of the total acreage
• Will provide clean electricity to 59,400 New York homes, according to the American Wind Energy Association
• Named to honor the maple sugaring tradition in Lewis County, the leading maple syrup producing county in New York