Across most of the western half of the U.S., electric companies are bracing for a heightened risk of blackouts during high usage periods due to rising temperatures and lower-than-expected energy production, according to a recent report by an energy industry watchdog.
The North American Energy Reliability Corporation’s (NERC) 2022 Summer Reliability Assessment raised the alarm on five electric utility corporations across seven regions that are at an elevated or heightened risk of having “insufficient operating reserves.”
“This recent report highlights the need to stop shutting down existing capacity. We’ve seen this pattern happen,” Jim Matheson, the former Utah congressman and current CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, told Fox News. “The report indicates the number of plants shut down earlier than anticipated, even a couple of years ago.” The risk for rolling blackouts is not only fueled by increased demand but also decreased power generation and ruptured infrastructure.
“It basically says that there’s a high risk of lack of sufficient resources, particularly in the Midwest, in Texas and in California or out in the Far West,” Daniel Brooks, a vice president at the Electrical Power Research Institute, told Fox News. “When you have that climate impacts that are driving higher demand that also are impacting the ability of the resources to produce at the same time that you really get risk.”
The report highlights that much of the western half of the country is at risk for widespread blackouts and capacity shortfalls during peak usage hours. NERC cites a myriad of issues, chief among them decreased hydroelectric generation from widespread drought conditions, damaged transmission lines due to extreme weather events, premature closure of coal and other fossil fuel plants and supply chain issues that continue to disrupt key American industries.
“There’s no question that extreme weather events are creating greater demand for electricity in this country, primarily through air conditioning load,” Matheson said. “You’ve got this circumstance for reliability being put into question by this increased demand, where, at the same time, we’re reducing our supply. Extreme weather is clearly one of the factors that’s causing it.”
The risk threatens the reliability of massive portions of the country’s electrical grid. Widespread blackouts can have disastrous consequences, as seen in the 2021 Texas winter power crisis. Still, there’s reason for long-term optimism. A problem of this magnitude is attracting the minds and efforts of large and small stakeholders across the energy sectors to pinpoint the roots of unreliability and find mitigating solutions.
