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With the recent harsh winter storm disruptions in its rear-view mirror, NERC issued its first ever top-level call to action on winter reliability (see article 1 below).  This level 3 action (the highest alert level) calls on generation and transmission owners to report their winter weatherization plans by October 6.  With the continued retirement of dispatchable generation, it is no read more…

Continuing from my last post regarding poor governance, both the EPA and Federal Appeals Court have taken recent actions that will affect grid reliability and future electricity costs.   With respect to the EPA, on April 5, the EPA moved to strengthen a mercury pollution rule for coal-fired power plants on the assumption that the vast majority of affected generators are read more…

It is unfortunate, if not shameful, that an important government agency is implementing rules that could seriously compromise the reliability of the electricity grid.  Yet, it is clear that EPA considered only the improvement in air quality and ignored the downstream impact of its “Good Neighbor” rule — higher costs and diminished reliability of electricity – in determining that the read more…

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is frequently cited for the proposition that renewable energy resources will become more competitive with traditional generating plant technologies.  However, it may come as a surprise that researchers are now claiming that renewables are more economical than all (but 1) of the remaining coal plants.   This is the conclusion of the just released Coal Cost read more…

This should be yet another wake-up call that the more rapid retirement of generation capacity is placing pressure on system operators’ ability to keep the lights on, particularly during more stressful periods.   MISO is not the only region facing an imminent threat.   MISO facing increasingly thin reserve margins due to plant retirements – NERC EXTRA Thursday, December 15, 2022 3:24 PM read more…

All is not well in “Grid-Land.”  The NYISO and MISO have recently issued warnings about the challenges to maintaining a reliable system in meeting decarbonization mandates (see the S&P articles below).  Especially concerning is that mandates are accelerating the retirement of older fossil-fuel units that the RTOs say are needed to avert capacity shortages.  More concerning is the growing reality read more…

There is no shortage of bold energy transition plans, as numerous governmental leaders and think tanks have proposed aggressive actions to fully decarbonize electricity generation over the next few decades.  Importantly, although the goal may be the same, the many transition plans employ different assumptions and means to achieve the goal.  That there are important differences warrants debate.   We have read more…