Kayaker-one,
I'm glad for your interest and impressed that you located and have questions about the 3rd QTR report in the FERC EQR database for Gamesa's Allegheny Ridge Wind Farm.
The 2 spreadsheets you found were for Transactions and Contracts. The Transactions file contains the 14,064 MWh figure ("transaction quantity") which I used to calculate this wind energy project's 3-month Capacity Factor; it represents the actual number of MWh that were produced by this facility. The Contracts file shows 430,000 MWh for "quantity", and it represents the maximum number of MWh's which First Energy Solutions has contractually agreed to annually purchase from the Allegheny Ridge Wind Farm's 40 2-MW wind turbines (i.e., 80 MW total generating capacity.
Following shows how I determined that Gamesa's Allegheny Ridge Wind Farm operated at under 8% Capacity Factor during the 3rd quarter of 2007:
Capacity Factor = the actual production for period (in MWh's)
divided by the product of the # MW of generating capacity times the # of operating hours possible
so Capacity Factor = 14,064 MWh / (
80 MW *
24 hrs/day * 92 days/3rd Qtr) = 7.96%
You may have to wait until next week (November) to find on the FERC EQR website all the reports covering the 3rd QTR because FERC allows Respondent Companies to file their 3rd QTR reports up until the last day of October. I just checked and EQR reports have not been filed yet for many "wind farms" in PA covering the 3rd QTR, but all of the following except Allegheny Ridge have filed quarterly reports with FERC in the 2nd QTR of 2007 and previous quarters (if in operation). Here's a list of the "Respondent Company" names which represent the wind energy projects in PA:
Allegheny Ridge Wind Farm, LLC (40 2-MW Gamesa turbines in Cambria and Blair Co's)
Locust Ridge Wind Farm, LLC (13 2-MW Gamesa turbines in Schuylkill Co)
Meyersdale Windpower, LLC (20 1.5-MW NEG Micon - now Vestas - turbines east of Meyersale, Somerset Co.)
Mill Run Windpower, LLC (10 1.5-MW ENRON turbines in Fayette County)
Pennsylvania Windfarms, INC (8 1.3-MW Nordic turbines next to Garrett in Somerset Co.)
Somerset Windpower, LLC (6 1.5-MW ENRON turbines next to Turnpike in Somerset Co.)
Waymart Wind Farm, LP (43 1.5-MW GE turbines in Wayne Co.)
The only other PA windplant which is "in operation" at this time is the 24 MW Bear Creek wind energy facility in Luzerne Co. Unfortunately, although there exists FERC EQR transaction data for this facility, it is difficult to extract this info and too difficult to explain via email how to interpret it.
Let me know if you have any questions. I've calculated monthly and annual capacity factors for each windplant in PA, and would be glad to share the results.
You also may be interested in downloading an Excel spreadsheet which contains the monthly and annual production info for most of "wind farms" operating in the US during 2005 - based on the USDOE's Energy Information Administration's "906/920" database. The spreadsheet also calculates the annual capacity factor for each wind energy facility, and for those projects larger than 25 MW it calculates their summer-time capacity factor (July through Sept). Note that there were 5 "wind farms" operating in PA during 2005 - see:
http://www.windaction.org/documents/8950. It is unknown whether the monthly generation data for "wind farms" under 25 MW in size is accurate due to methodological procedures used by EIA, but the annual total is supposed to be accurate for these smaller wind energy facilities.
