The transition to more wind and solar resources became the center of political backlash after rolling blackouts struck Texas last year, despite grid failures largely being attributed to natural gas infrastructure. Proving the grid can handle periods of high stress in the immediate term is essential to achieving the Biden administration’s longer goal of decarbonizing the power sector by 2035 and the economy by 2050 - and avoiding the worst impacts of climate change that will put further stress on the power system. aims to electrify more high-emitting sectors of the economy - eventually leading to even more demand on the aging power system. This summer’s anticipated tight grid conditions are just the tip of the iceberg as weather grows increasingly unpredictable and the U.S. While waiting for new technologies such as battery storage to become commercially available, the system continues to add intermittent renewable generation to its fleet, but it is retiring existing fossil fuel units more quickly, Bear said during a press briefing earlier this month hosted by the U.S. The Midwest region that he oversees faces the highest risk of reliability issues this summer, according to a recent report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. “Unfortunately we’re moving in that direction quite quickly and I’m worried about the transition.” “Everybody’s got a good sense of where we want to go in terms of decarbonizing the fleet, and we are moving in that direction,” said John Bear, CEO of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which stretches from Minnesota to Louisiana. Allyson Waller contributed reporting from Conroe, Texas, Brad Plumer from Washington, and John Schwartz from New York.Regulators know these issues are leading to an escalation in the risk of widespread and expensive outages, but are divided about how to ensure systems in these regions can reliably provide power this summer and going forward. “I feel very confused - and cold.”ĭavid Montgomery reported from Austin, Rick Rojas from Nashville, Ivan Penn from Los Angeles, and James Dobbins from San Antonio. “I don’t understand how so many people are without power for so long,” said Diana Gomez, who lives in Austin and works for a nonprofit group, adding that she questioned how officials decided where to cut off service and what it would mean for her older neighbors or families with small children. Her discomfort and rising anger mirrored that of thousands of others across Texas who were demanding answers over why they remained in a prolonged blackout when they were expecting to be without power for only a short while, if at all. And yet, we’re not prepared for an emergency like this.” “I’m angry because we are one of the most powerful states in the country, we have one of the best economies in the country. “We’re living in the pandemic and now we’re also living with a snowstorm,” Ms. “Generating units across fuel types continue to struggle with frigid temperatures.” The agency “is restoring load as fast as we can in a stable manner,” the council said in a statement on Tuesday. But in a meeting with lawmakers on Tuesday, council officials could not give an estimate on how long it would take to fully restore service. At one point, 400,000 homes had their electricity restored in a one-hour span. Officials said that the council was moving quickly to return power. “It’s putting major strain on both the electricity grid and the gas grid that feeds both electricity and heat.”īill Magness, the president and chief executive of the Electric Reliability Council, said on Tuesday that the agency was “trying to get people’s power back on as quickly as possible,” while also balancing the need to “safely manage the balance of supply and demand on the grid” to avoid larger collapses in the power system. “No one’s model of the power system envisioned that all 254 Texas counties would come under a winter storm warning at the same time,” said Joshua Rhodes, an expert on the state’s electric grid at the University of Texas at Austin.
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