Politico

30Jul

“It is actually here now”

“The reliability threat is not on the future horizon,” Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman (FERC) Mark Christie said last week. “It is actually here now.” Christie, who was overseeing his last FERC meeting before departing the commission, was responding to results from PJM’s recent capacity auction—an auction that for the first time came up short […]
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 […]
27Mar

Where is the Power Going to Come From?

It is becoming inarguably clear the U.S. is in for a surge in electricity demand. The Biden EPA just finalized its tailpipe rule and by 2032, 70% of new cars will run primarily on electricity. New semiconductor and battery manufacturing plants are connecting to the grid with power demands that rival small cities. Add in […]
10Jan

The Jig is Up

When is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) going to face the facts on the unworkable technology mandates in its so-called Clean Power Plan 2.0? Just this week, prominent Senate Democrats Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Chairman of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Mark Kelly of Arizona, Jon Tester of […]
13Dec

A System on the Brink

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (NERC) latest long-term reliability assessment is clear: the bulk power system is in crisis and the energy transition is being woefully mismanaged. The report reveals surging electricity demand, potential supply shortfalls under both extreme weather conditions and normal operating conditions, as well as alarming peak capacity deficits in grids […]
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, […]
20Nov

Can the Biden EPA Accept Reality?

As The Wall Street Journal recently put it, “the energy transition is getting a dose of reality.” In the U.S., offshore wind projects are evaporating, transmission lines remain extraordinarily difficult to build, the nation’s first planned small modular reactor project was just cancelled and dozens of renewable-power developers are trying to rewrite contracts to recoup […]
18May

A Plan to Break the Grid

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rolled out its sweeping new climate rule last week. In the plan’s crosshairs is the generating capacity that meets 60% of the nation’s power. Should the EPA get its way, today’s coal and gas fleets will be largely disassembled nearly overnight, posing a remarkable threat to a grid already […]
03May

FERC Stares Down the Reliability Crisis

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) sits right at the crossroads of the nation’s collapsing grid reliability and the increasingly disorderly energy transition. While FERC commissioners will be the first to tell you they don’t have the tiller for the nation’s energy policy, they do have a keen sense of whether the nation’s electricity markets […]
08Feb

The Country Needs Coal Too Mr. President

Call it an admission of pragmatism. While talking to the nation’s energy future last night during the State of the Union address, President Biden went off script and admitted that “we’re still going to need oil and gas for a while.” It was a statement of fact even if it made climate hawks grimace. What […]