A company that monitors the output of power plants says its product can also help wind farms optimize their operations. Genscape’s technology of using electro-magnetic frequency monitors allows it to see how much power is flowing through power lines and from plants. The company’s managing director of power intelligence Chris Seiple says they then make that information available to traders and other market participants to give real-time transparency to what is going on within the power market. He says information like that can especially help wind power generation operations because of the wind power’s unpredictability.

“Wind variation, because it’s unpredictable, can have a very big influence on the volatility of the power market that day,” Chris says, adding that once a wind farm is built, the information really comes in handy for those farm owners optimizing their operation. Now, wind farm owners have to decide every day whether they will sell tomorrow’s power at today’s price, but not know the output, or wait until tomorrow and sell at tomorrow’s price, but not know what that price would be. Either choice involves risk, but Chris says their technology offers predictions of wind output levels and pricing. “That can be used to help wind producers make better decisions about how to schedule that power into the market.”

He says bringing more transparency into the market also helps consumers by making wind energy producers more efficient and able to pass that efficiency and reliability to the customer.

And he believes Genscape allows the whole energy sector, including renewables, work together better for the good of all.

“What we do in providing a lot more visibility in what’s happening in the market minute-to-minute and providing that transparency improves the reliability of the system.”

Listen to Joanna’s interview with Chris here: Chris Seiple, Genscape