Originally Posted by
Jantar
Yes it is, and that is why wind generation gets priority in the dispatch process. But that is also a large part of the problem. Hydro can ramp fairly quickly, but thermal cannot. A typical hydro generator can ramp at 1 MW per second, or 60 MW per minute, so a station like Arapuni could ramp at 480 MW per minute, if all its generators were running. However if they are all running the Arapuni has a minimum load of around 100 MW and a maximum of 196 MW, giving only 96 MW swing.
If the wind is strong then not many generators would be running, so that would reduce the amount of ramping available even further.