Just How Unreliable Can the Grid Become?

As the inclusion of a potential clean electricity standard continues to be linked to infrastructure talks, context is important. The United States is already living on the grid reliability edge and, without thoughtful planning, could be poised to lunge towards the chasm. With the energy transition accelerating, and proposed timelines becoming shorter, just how much […]

On July 28, 2021
California, emissions, fuel diversity, grid reliability, infrastructure, Texas, Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC)

26May

The Grid Reliability Warnings Keep Coming

Back in the summer of 2019, Jim Robb, the president and CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), said that when most engineers look at the Texas grid, they conclude that “there’s no way in hell they can keep the lights on. And yet they do.” Robb, speaking to the Federal Energy Regulatory […]

On May 26, 2021
California, Colonial Pipeline, fuel diversity, fuel security, infrastructure, Jim Robb, New England, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), Texas, Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC)

19May

Here Come the Blackouts

We now know that the rolling blackouts that gripped California last summer weren’t an anomaly. They were, in fact, a preview of a reliability crisis that has grown to stretch across the Western grid. The Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) is warning that the West simply doesn’t have enough power supply to meet a region-wide […]

On May 19, 2021
Bloomberg, California, grid reliability, JP McMahon, Loretta Lynch, Mike Florio, Politico, Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC), Wood Mackenzie