PJM Interconnection

15Sep

Walking the Reliability Tightrope

Just last week, the Texas grid narrowly avoided blackouts as the state’s grid operator, ERCOT, instituted emergency operating conditions. It was the latest sign that as power demand soars, operators are walking a tightrope to manage grids ever-more dependent on variable sources of power, policy-constrained supplies of thermal generation and inadequate infrastructure. As E&E News […]
30Aug

The Energy Policy Torpedo

The nation’s grid reliability watchdog added an alarming new dimension to its regular warnings over the eroding state of the nation’s grid reliability. For the first time, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) is warning that energy policy now directly threatens reliability. In the latest edition of NERC’s Reliability Risk Priorities Report, the authors […]
28Jun

Federal Coal Leasing is a Success Story

As the Department of the Interior considers the future of the federal coal leasing program, it’s worth noting what a success the program has been, how important it remains to mining states and communities and how essential coal remains in the nation’s energy mix. The federal coal leasing program has provided hundreds of millions of […]
21Jun

The Electricity Demand Elephant in the Room

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is occupying an alternate universe where soaring electricity demand from electrification and big data isn’t a concern. In EPA’s world – or the one they present in justifying their blitz of rules targeting fossil fuel generation – rapid electrification of transportation, heating and heavy industry, and surging electricity demand […]
07Jun

Congress Zeroes in on EPA’s Grid Reliability Crisis

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is supposed to consider grid reliability in its rulemakings on the nation’s power plants. But, as a recent series of Congressional hearings on the deteriorating state of the nation’s grid reliability have made abundantly clear, not only is EPA not serious about grid reliability, it’s driving the crisis. Last […]
31May

The Senate Takes Measure of the Reliability Crisis

The Wall Street Journal asked in a recent editorial, “How many warnings does it take before the Biden Administration wakes up to the risks from its climate policies to the U.S. electric grid?” Here’s hoping it’s less than the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop—mathematicians at New […]
24May

The Biden Administration’s Arithmetic Problem

The Biden administration is building its entire energy agenda on a foundation of speed. Or as some members of the Biden energy team like to say, “deploy, deploy, deploy.” Their mandate is to build wind turbines, solar arrays, site transmission lines and reshore supply chains overnight while the U.S. (EPA) Environmental Protection Agency simultaneously tears […]
19Apr

EV Ambitions Built on Imploding Grid Reliability

The Biden administration seems perpetually optimistic, and rarely realistic. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has rolled out new tailpipe emission standards that are going to force a lightning-quick pivot to electric vehicles (EVs). By 2032, EPA hopes that 67% of new car sales are zero-emission. Getting there is going to be colossally challenging. It’s […]
29Mar

Where’s the Transmission?

As the Biden administration charges ahead with its regulatory blitz to shutter the existing U.S. coal fleet, the infrastructure required for renewable energy to reliably support American households and businesses simply doesn’t exist.  Again and again, experts warn that transmission is the key to building a renewable-heavy future. Analyses from researchers at national labs, the […]
01Mar

PJM Sounds the Capacity Shortfall Alarm

The nation’s largest electricity market is warning that it will face a steep capacity shortfall by the close of the decade as forced power plant retirements far outpace planned additions. Policy-driven closures of primarily coal plants threaten to leave PJM Interconnection – which serves 65 million Americans in 13 states and the District of Columbia […]