Blog

23Feb

The Reliability Crisis Reaches a New Gear

A new consensus is building that electricity grid reliability problems are in fact very real and very serious. That may not be news to anyone who has been paying attention. There have been countless warnings that something is very wrong but, for years, many of the warnings and some of the loudest voices making them […]
16Feb

Creating Our Own Energy Crisis

Perhaps the greatest challenge of the energy transition is timing the installation of the infrastructure and generating capacity required for our energy future in parallel with – or more quickly – than we are dismantling our current electricity mix and the affordability and reliability it underpins. Unfortunately, it’s a challenge policymakers either seem not to […]
02Feb

Power Grid Roulette

Another February storm has Texans wondering if they’re in for a repeat of the catastrophic grid failure of a year ago. While this storm isn’t expected to be nearly as severe, there’s an uneasy recognition from regulators and policymakers that given the right circumstances the Texas grid could go over the edge once again. Despite […]
26Jan

Europe’s Self-Made Energy Crisis

The European energy crisis is poised to go from very bad to unimaginably worse. While all eyes are on Ukraine and Russia, Europe’s energy woes are largely self-made, not due to outside forces. Europe has made its own bed, disassembling dispatchable fuel diversity by closing well-operating coal and nuclear power plants. In doing so it […]
19Jan

Did We Learn Anything from Texas?

On December 30th, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) issued a press release declaring that 322 power generating and transmission facilities had undergone stringent inspections indicating the Texas grid was ready for winter. Implied was that the grid disaster of the previous February, which left hundreds dead and millions without power or heat for […]
12Jan

The Loss of Dispatchable Fuel Diversity Reverberates in Europe

U.S. coal generation came roaring back last year, rebounding 17% from 2020 and grabbing market share from higher priced natural gas. The U.S. coal fleet is proving to be an invaluable price shock absorber amid energy-driven inflation here at home and coal is also an equally important missing price shock absorber in Europe. The U.S. […]
05Jan

The Grid Crisis is Only Getting Worse

The New Year has arrived with bitter cold and winter storms that left almost 1 million households without power along the East Coast. The reliability of the nation’s energy systems is being tested once again and there is ever-growing concern they’re not up for the challenge. The North American Electricity Reliability Corporation (NERC) ended 2021 […]
15Dec

Looking Back as We Begin to Look Forward

The year is coming to a close, but before we look forward to 2022, it’s worth looking back on 2021 and the moments and themes that have shaped how we think about coal and its future. Over the course of 2021, this blog has tried to offer insight and perspective on an energy conversation that […]
08Dec

The Grid Crisis is International

The grid reliability warnings keep coming. Both here and in Europe, electricity grids – particularly those that have raced away from dispatchable fuel diversity and allowed their reserve margins to erode – are facing ever-mounting warnings that available capacity may not keep up with demand. In the U.K., the national grid operator issued its first […]