'I'd Be Really Nervous': Summer Power Outages, Brownouts Are Just Around The Corner Thanks To New Biden Policies

A report from the energy industry watchdog, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), has revealed that over 60 percent of North America could suffer from power outages as temperatures increase over the summer due to utilities failing to maintain a necessary reserve capacity.

In plain English: due to leftist administrations in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico over-leveraging 'green' energy sources and shutting down proven fossil-fuel-based generation while failing to replace it fast enough or reliably enough with 'renewable' sources, the delicate balance of generation and consumption is being disrupted. 

According to the report cited by The Epoch Times, nine of North America's regional power grids, eight in the U.S., and one in Canada, have an elevated risk of power loss as well as brown-outs during seasonal heat waves from June through September. This is at least partly attributed to the increasing reliance of utilities on 'green' energy sources that left-leaning politicians want to replace fossil fuels with.

 

The 2023 SRA identifies concerns across North America. To give a better understanding of the potential #risks that two-thirds of the #grid will face this summer, we’ve created a brief video that describes the risks associated with each assessment area.https://t.co/fsimgzE9Iv pic.twitter.com/qWk8YNGjXX

— NERC (@NERC_Official) May 18, 2023

National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Executive Director Greg R. White told The Epoch Times,

“The pace in which we are closing fossil fuel plants is exceeding the pace that we are bringing new plants online,” White said. “If you are paying attention to what is going on in this industry, the industry has been saying the transition [from fossil fuels to renewables] would be challenging.”

NERC Director of Reliability John Moura told reporters, "The elevated risk profiles that we’re seeing are driven by a combination of conventional generation retirements seen over the last couple of years, a substantial increase in forecasted peak demand and new loads coming—we are electrifying more than we ever had in the past," according to Epoch Times.
 

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The most striking example from the report seems to be in the Southwest Power Pool or 'SPP,'
 

"Reserve margins have also fallen in SPP as a result of increasing peak demand and declining anticipated resources. Like MISO, the energy output of SPP’s wind generators during periods of high demand is a key factor in determining whether there is sufficient electricity supply on the system. SPP can face energy challenges in meeting extreme peak demand or managing periods of thermal or hydro generator outages if wind resource energy output is below normal"

In Texas, where the energy regulatory agency ERCOT came under fire for the massive winter 2021 failure of its wind-turbine systems, the report cautioned that "dispatchable generation may not be sufficient to meet reserves during an extreme heat wave that is accompanied by low winds." 'Dispatchable generation' is essentially production that can be increased and decreased at will such as coal or natural gas-fired power plants.

In Ontario, Canada, "Planned nuclear outage(s) for refurbishment have reduced the electricity supply resources serving the province. Additionally, load growth is contributing to a constrained transmission network during high-demand conditions that may not be able to deliver sufficient supply to the Windsor-Essex area in the southwest part of the province."

In response to these issues as well as those with labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and other continuing aftershocks of the COVID-19 lockdowns, NERC is recommending state regulators "to prepare for efficient implementation of demand side management mechanisms." In other words: governments need to implement energy-saving measures among the population, this has materialized in the past with scheduled, rolling outages and brownouts to an extreme, or at the very least some heavy-handed calls for the public to reduce consumption while cities and states curtail public services.

All of these attack symptoms, but do not address the systemic failures the report describes. It further fails to address the anticipated increase in load set to be inflicted by Biden administration policies to shift a majority of new vehicle sales to all-electric by 2032.

Todd Snitchler, president and CEO of the Electric Power Supply Association, told Politico, "We’ve already got reliability concerns." Energy producers would be faced with a choice under the new rule to either close coal and gas plants, some of which are fairly modern, before 2040, or alternatively commit to expensive retrofits such as carbon capture or blending in cleaner burning hydrogen with natural gas.

The outlet reported that power producers have warned that Biden's new greenhouse gas rule proposed Thursday could serve to escalate the risk of power outages as coal, oil, and natural gas-fired power plants are forced into early retirement.

The producers told Politico that the new rule could compromise grid reliability as the plants are retired faster than they could potentially be replaced.

"You don’t have anything today that can replace the gas that could retire," Snitchler added.

The new rule would hit the midwest and western U.S. hardest where coal-fired plants are still prevalent. “If I were MISO (the Midcontinent Independent System Operator), I’d be really nervous,” Snitchler noted.

Industry expert Leslie Holloway, an OEM Business Development Manager with decades of experience "in all modalities of the electrical and electrical manufacturing industry," explained the problem succinctly to the DC Enquirer,

"Unless the ENTIRE grid is modernized, all at one time in parallel with the existing infrastructure and goes heavy nuclear, Biden's stupid green energy plan CANNOT work, and the whole of North America will continue to suffer because of these idiots. Full stop. Period. It is an all-forms need and without robust energy storage which is TOXIC the all-electric dream is folly."

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