{"id":1933457,"date":"2023-05-18T13:26:14","date_gmt":"2023-05-18T17:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-depth-power-grid-facing-elevated-risk-of-summer-outages-warns-reliability-watchdog\/"},"modified":"2023-05-18T13:31:13","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T17:31:13","slug":"in-depth-power-grid-facing-elevated-risk-of-summer-outages-warns-reliability-watchdog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-depth-power-grid-facing-elevated-risk-of-summer-outages-warns-reliability-watchdog\/","title":{"rendered":"Power grid at risk of summer outages, warns watchdog."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fin-depth-power-grid-facing-elevated-risk-of-summer-outages-warns-reliability-watchdog%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1933457&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Are Electrical Outages Coming This Summer?<\/h2>\n<p>More than two-thirds of North America could see electrical outages when temperatures spike this coming summer because utilities in many areas do not have sufficient reserve generation capacity to meet surges in demand. According to an annual summer reliability assessment published on May 17 by\u00a0the watchdog North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the power grid in at least eight regions of the United States and one in Ontario, Canada, face elevated risk of brown-outs and black-outs during heat waves between June and September.<\/p>\n<h3>The Cause of the Problem<\/h3>\n<p>The report cites the \u201crapidly-changing resource mix\u201d driven by President Joe Biden\u2019s goal to \u201cdecarbonize\u201d the U.S. electrical grid by 2035 as spurring a disjointed transition from oil, gas, and natural gas to renewable energies, such as wind, solar, and nuclear, before the grid can adjust and expand transmission capacities. Windmills and solar panels are shown in Kahuku, Hawaii, on Aug. 22, 2022. (AP Photo\/Caleb Jones)<\/p>\n<h3>What Experts are Saying<\/h3>\n<p>National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Executive Director Greg R. White told The Epoch Times that while he had not done a deep dive on NERC\u2019s assessment as yet, its warning of summer power outages contains \u201cno surprises.\u201d Senior Regulatory Counsel for the\u00a0American Public Power Association (APPA) John McCaffrey concurred. \u201cNERC\u2019s conclusions reinforce APPA\u2019s concerns about the reliability ramifications associated with the pace of the resource transition in the United States,\u201d he told The Epoch Times by email.<\/p>\n<h3>Regional Grids at Risk<\/h3>\n<p>The regional grids most at risk are: the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC) New England, SERC-Central, Southwest Power Pool (SPP), Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), The Western Interconnection, and NPPC-Ontario. According to NERC, all of the regional grids are expected to meet demands during normal operations.<\/p>\n<h3>What Could Go Wrong?<\/h3>\n<p>Since NERC says in its assessment that the MISO grid will rely on wind to meet surges in demand, as a result, \u201cMISO can face challenges in meeting above-normal peak demand if wind generator energy output is lower than expected.\u201d In NPCC-New England\u2019s grid, emergency resources and supplies \u201cfrom neighboring areas are likely to be needed during more extreme demand or low resource conditions\u201d and in NPCC-Ontario, a planned offline refurbishment of a nuclear power plant and a \u201cconstrained transmission network\u201d could cause power outages, with the Windsor-Essex area being particularly vulnerable, NERC said.<\/p>\n<h3>What&#8217;s the Solution?<\/h3>\n<p>The NERC report maintains that constraints on natural gas and coal delivery infrastructure, new federal environmental restrictions, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/critics-biden-infrastructure-plan-doesnt-address-cyber-security-threats-to-u-s-power-grid\/\" title=\"Critics: Biden infrastructure plan doesn\u2019t address cyber security threats to U.S. power grid\">supply chain issues<\/a>, declining water levels near some hydropower plants, and \u201cunexpected tripping\u201d of wind and solar resources all contribute to the uncertainty. The most likely way the coal- and natural gas-fired plants will meet those <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trucking-industry-hit-with-new-epa-regulations-likely-to-increase-operating-costs\/\" title=\"Trucking Industry Hit with New EPA Regulations That Are Likely To Increase Operating Costs\">clean air standards<\/a> is \u201cby limiting hours of operation in this first year of implementation rather than through adding emissions control equipment,\u201d according to NERC\u2019s assessment. The nation is firmly in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-heading-toward-power-grid-reliability-crisis-energy-commissioner-warns\/\" title=\"Energy Commissioner warns of power grid reliability crisis in the U.S.\">grid reliability crisis<\/a> that will only grow more acute if [the] EPA continues to drive an agenda that forces the closure of the essential generating capacity that underpins grid reliability before reliable alternatives, and their supporting infrastructure, are in place,\u201d said National Mining Association (NMA) president and CEO Rich Nolan.<\/p>\n<h3>Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p>It&#8217;s clear that the U.S. electrical grid is facing a major challenge this summer. While experts agree that the transition to renewable energy is necessary, it&#8217;s important to ensure that the grid can adjust and expand transmission capacities before making the switch. With rising electricity demand, we should be building on the shoulders of our existing coal fleet, not imposing a suite of mandates to tear it down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over two-thirds of North America may experience power outages this summer due to insufficient reserve generation capacity in many areas, warns the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. The annual summer reliability assessment highlights the risk of surges in demand during temperature spikes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":509,"featured_media":1933458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[8766,27072,5084,7514,10502,3633,6056],"class_list":["post-1933457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-grid","tag-outages","tag-power","tag-risk","tag-summer","tag-warns","tag-watchdog"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/509"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1933457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1933458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1933457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1933457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1933457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}