Last Thursday night's icing conditions affected output at the Melancthon I and Kingsbridge wind farms, but over-all wind production at the four wind farms across the province remained at better than 50 per cent of capacity.

By mid-afternoon Friday, all four farms were producing normally.

According to the Independent Electrical Supply Organization's (IESO) website, Melancthon I was producing 55, 57, and 58 hourly average megawatts of its 67.5 between midnight and 3 a.m. It dwindled to 23 between 3 and 4 a.m., and then ceased as Canadian Hydro shut the plant down as is good industry practice.

"As responsible operators, we shut the wind plant down if we suspect icing conditions rather than stress the equipment and its components," said Maurice Hickey, Assistant Manager, Wind Division, Canadian Hydro.

"In this case, we noticed what appeared to be icing conditions in the early morning hours of March 2. Once identified, we shut down the plant until it could be properly assessed during daylight hours."

Kingsbridge (in the Goderich area) was off-line from midnight until close to 10 a.m., but its output had grown to 27 megawatts of its nameplate capacity of 40.

Meantime, Port Burwell (on the Lake Erie shore) varied from a low of 55 MW to a high of 99. Its rated capacity is 99 MW. It had reached that at 8 a.m.

Princefarm, Ontario's largest with a rated capacity of 189 MW, varied throughout the night from a low of 96 MW to a high of 161.

The total rated capacity of the four major farms is 396 MW. Over-all output Thursday night was at a high of 297, and a low of 195 MW demonstrating the contribution that wind power is making to the provincial electricity supply without depleting resources or creating significant stress on the environment.