The spokesman for the state’s largest utility company says the heavy winds that accompanied the storms last week helped create an electric generation record. MidAmerican spokesman, Geoff Greenwood, says the company’s turbines did a lot of turning.
Greenwood says the company’s turbines produced 158-thousand megawatt hours of wind energy, which he says is at least the amount of energy MidAmerican customers would use in a day. He says they can make adjustments on the turbines if the winds become too strong.
Greenwood says icy conditions can be a problem for the turbines.
There were bitterly cold temperatures and Greenwood says their turbines have winter packages to deal with that.
Greenwood says turbines are rated to work in temperatures down to 22 below zero and could possibly work below that. Most Iowans heat with natural gas, and he says usage was up with the subzero temperatures.
He says customers may see a higher heating bill than normal for the month, but that depends on how the temperatures play out the rest of the month.
