Southwest Power Pool (SPP), a grid operator that covers 14 states in the central U.S., announced on March 29, 2022, that it had relied on renewables for 90.2% of the energy needed to meet electricity demand for the first time.[1] The record was set at 2:42 a.m. Central time on March 29, 2022, and beat the previous record of 87.5% set on May 8, 2021. This marks the first time a regional transmission organization (RTO) has served more than 90% of its load with renewables. 88.5% was served by wind alone, beating the previous wind penetration record set on May 8, 2021, of 84%. In a statement, SPP Senior Vice President of Operations Bruce Rew said, “In a decade’s time, our region has gone from thinking of 25% renewable-penetration levels as nearly unreachable to a point where we regularly exceed 75% without reliability concerns. We’re able to manage wind generation more effectively than other, smaller systems can because we’ve got a huge pool of resources to draw from.”

The grid operator also set new wind and renewable production records. At 9:25 p.m. Central time on March 28, 2022, the SPP footprint produced 23,802 MW of renewable energy, beating the previous record of 21,820 MW set on February 15, 2022. And at 10:34 p.m. the same day, wind production reached a record 22,915 MW, surpassing the previous record of 21,820 MW from February 15, 2022.

[1] https://www.spp.org/newsroom/press-releases/spp-sets-regional-records-for-renewable-energy-production/