The watchdog overseeing the North American power grid warns that the combination of rapid retirement of coal-fired electricity generation and the increasing reliance on wind and solar are risking large swaths of the United States with blackouts during heat waves and cold snaps.
“This assessment provides clear evidence of growing resource adequacy concerns over the next 10 years,” the latest report states. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) produces annual long-term assessments of potential electricity shortfalls over the next decade. In its latest long-term assessment published Wednesday, NERC stated that a priority action to ensure more grid reliability is increasing natural gas supply infrastructure.
For the past few years, NERC’s long-term assessments have reported increasing risks of electricity shortfalls during periods of high demand as a result of increased weather-dependent generation from wind and solar, as well as increasing demands for power stemming from electric vehicles, data centers, and home electrification.
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