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Most of us will You face an increased risk of being interrupted If summer weather turns harsh, it will extend to parts of the southeastern United States for the first time, according to the regulatory body that oversees power grid stability.
Power supply It should be sufficient to meet normal peak summer demand, but “if summer temperatures rise and become more widespread, the western United States, Midwest, Texas, southeastern United States, New England, and Ontario could face resource shortages,” North American Electric Reliability Corp. He said this week in 2023 Summer Reliability Assessment.
Extreme heat events put the western United States at particular risk of shortages, the report said, as it relies on regional power transmissions to meet peak demand or when solar production is reduced.
NERC has added the southeast-central region, including Tennessee and parts of five neighboring states, to its risk list because peak demand is expected to increase by 950 megawatts with little change in supply.
The mid-continent independent system operator, which serves a broad cross-section of customers from the US Gulf Coast to Canada, could run into problems during periods of high demand if wind generator power production is lower than expected.
Texas has added more than 4 gigawatts of new solar capacity to its grid since last year, but “distributable generation may not be enough to meet reserves during an extreme heat wave with low winds,” according to NERC.
According to the report, the New England grid has lower power supplies than it did last summer, and will likely need help from neighboring regions to manage the tight periods.
“This report is a particularly sobering warning that America’s ability to keep the lights on has been compromised,” NEC CEO Jim Matheson said.
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Power grid operator PJM Interconnection published a report earlier this year warning that it could face serious generation capacity shortages in the coming years as conventional generator retirements outpace additions.