blackouts skyrocket amid political unrest

#BLACKOUTS SKYROCKET AMID POLITICAL UNREST HOW TO#

“So it’s really important that we all realize. electrifies more sectors of the economy, “it makes it much harder for us to get to the net-zero objectives that we have in the timelines that we need,” he continued. If the electric sector can’t show it can maintain a grid that’s reliable and resilient even with the anticipated onset of demand as the U.S. “The biggest concern is that you do have another wide-scale event that does erode that confidence of society and the electric sector being able to be that foundation for decarbonizing,” he said. California faced similar criticisms after it faced rolling blackouts in 2020.Īnother major grid failure will only further dampen confidence in building a zero-carbon grid despite decarbonization being essential to mitigating even worse extreme weather events, said Daniel Brooks, vice president of integrated grid and energy systems at the Electric Power Research Institute. 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.

#BLACKOUTS SKYROCKET AMID POLITICAL UNREST HOW TO#

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.

Blackouts skyrocket amid political unrest