Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)

14May

Another Summer of Potential Power Shortfalls

Scorching heat could threaten the nation’s energy supply this summer, with demand eclipsing supply and potentially causing shortfalls and power outages throughout large swaths of the United States, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) warned today in its 2025 Summer Reliability Assessment. NERC underscored that the nation’s grid reliability – facing the twin challenges […]
30Dec

2024 in Review

Happy almost new year! Before we turn the page on 2024, it’s worth looking back on the stories and major developments that shaped – even reshaped – the energy landscape over the past 12 months. Years of warnings about rapidly eroding grid reliability collided with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA’s) regulatory agenda and the […]
11Dec

Power Demand Growth Gets Another Enormous Upward Revision

As we approach the end of the 2024, it is fitting that electricity demand growth has gotten another huge upward revision. According to new analysis from Grid Strategies, a leading power sector consulting firm, U.S. electricity demand could jump an astonishing 128 gigawatts (GW) over just the next five years driven largely by the data […]
18Sep

Grid Operators Tell the Court: EPA’s Rule is a Dire Threat to Reliability

The nation’s grid operators warned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the then proposed so-called Clean Power Plan 2.0 was a direct and alarming threat to grid reliability. Those concerns were shrugged off as EPA pushed forward and finalized an unworkable and unlawful rule. Now, the grid operators are getting involved in the legal […]
10Jul

MISO Warns it’s Going to be Woefully Short of Power

Across the country, one grid operator after another is sounding the alarm over soaring power demand, an inability to meet it and the threat posed by early retirements of essential coal capacity. PJM Interconnection, the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and now the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) have all […]
05Jun

Surging Power Demands Meet an Inflexible EPA Agenda

Not a week goes by without another jaw-dropping projection on the speed and scale of power demand growth. PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest grid operator serving 65 million Americans, has warned again and again that it is facing rapidly approaching capacity shortfalls. The collision of soaring power demand driven by electrification, new industrial activity and […]
08May

EPA’s Regulatory Blitz Collides with Hyperscale Power Demand

“You never like to have to sue, but we’re going to do what we have to do to defend our grid and our customers that use that grid,” Ben Fowke, American Electric Power (AEP) interim president, CEO and director, said during a recent earnings call. Facing surging power demand, AEP – which serves 5 million […]
17Apr

The Grid Braces for EPA’s Blitz of Rules

With news leaking that as many as four of EPA’s rules targeting the coal fleet will be finalized next week, including the so-called Clean Power Plan 2.0, EPA is delivering a cumulative and decisive blow to the nation’s grid reliability it has refused to acknowledge or analyze in its rulemakings. While EPA has downplayed the […]
17Jan

The Next Winter Grid Disaster

If the lights went out for millions of Americans on a frigid day would there be much surprise? There would be shock – and there would be plenty of finger pointing – but “surprise” is a word that might be tellingly missing. In fact, some major regional grid operators might be more likely to be […]
29Nov

The Power Demand Surge

There is a quiet revolution upending the trajectory of our energy future. For all the extraordinary challenges inherent with trying to stand up a renewable-dominant energy mix nearly overnight, perhaps none is beginning to loom as large as the breakneck speed electricity demand is growing all over the country. Speculation about the impact that electrification, […]