grid reliability

23Oct

The Numbers Aren’t Adding Up

At the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s annual Reliability Technical Conference on Oct. 16, the nation’s top grid reliability expert sounded like a doctor delivering grim news. Despite the many warnings, despite countless reports and congressional testimony, the reliability of the nation’s grid is going from bad to worse. North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) CEO Jim Robb […]
02Oct

PJM Can’t Get New Capacity Online

At the precise moment power demand is exploding, PJM, the operator of the nation’s largest grid, is struggling to get new capacity online. In fact, the problem is doubly difficult. At the exact time PJM desperately needs new capacity additions to surge, they’re stalled, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making matters worse […]
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 […]
04Sep

Dispatchable Power Remains Irreplaceable

On August 26, amidst broiling heat across the Midwest, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) issued a maximum generation event with power demand soaring to 122 gigawatts (GW). MISO – with service territory stretching from Louisiana up through Minnesota – needed every megawatt of power it could generate and then some. MISO even needed to […]
21Aug

FERC’s Christie: “Such an Unrealistic Standard”

On July 12, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Subcommittee on Energy, Climate and Grid Security Chair Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) demanding information on how FERC is preparing for the impacts of the so-called Clean Power Plan 2.0 and what role the Commission […]
14Aug

Surging Capacity Prices in PJM Set off New Alarms

For months now, PJM’s leadership has warned of rapidly approaching power shortages. If there was any suspicion of exaggeration, PJM’s most recent capacity auction has put those rumblings to bed. Capacity payments to generators in PJM, a sort of insurance premium to assure plants are available when needed, just jumped a remarkable 800% as rising […]
17Jul

Are Candidates Ready to Address Energy Shortages?

The campaign trail is about to be filled with contrasting visions of the nation’s energy future. While oil production and the ongoing debate about energy independence are sure to draw focus, the remarkably perilous state of the nation’s power grid and our supply of electricity have become kitchen-table issues. Americans are rightfully frustrated with eroding […]
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 […]
01Jul

A Victory for Grid Reliability

In a significant victory for the reliability of the nation’s electricity grid, the U.S. Supreme Court granted state and industry requests to stay enforcement of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Ozone Transport rule. This is the first major court ruling on EPA’s suite of rules designed to prematurely retire coal plants. While pursuing the case […]
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 […]