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The US is facing a blackout ‘crisis’ – thanks to green energy

Power grids in the US are currently providing a case study of the risks of a mis-managed energy transition. Prematurely closing coal, gas and nuclear power stations risks blackouts. Who knew?
Well, apparently lots of people.

Back in April, lawmakers wrote to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) saying that “blackouts, brownouts, and energy rationing have become far too common in the past few years. The primary cause of the electricity shortages Americans have experienced in recent history is a lack of generation capacity ... These shortages often happen in the cold of winter or the heat of summer. This is due, in no small part, to the premature retirement of dispatchable generation resources, like coal, nuclear, and natural gas, and the rapid expansion of intermittent resources, like wind and solar, onto the bulk power system.”
The FERC agrees. Appearing before the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee earlier this summer, FERC Commissioner Mark Christie said “the United States is heading for a reliability crisis. I do not use the term ‘crisis’ for melodrama, but because it is an accurate description of what we are facing.”
Christie said that too many coal, natural gas and nuclear power stations are being mothballed too quickly, threatening security of supply. Jim Robb, CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), an agency which enforces grid reliability standards, told the same committee that operating the electric grid “ever closer to the edge” by relying on weather-dependent renewables will likely lead to “more frequent and more serious disruptions.”
In June, the NERC warned that two-thirds of North America was at risk of energy shortfalls in high heat, in its summer reliability report. It found that all 20 assessment areas have adequate power resources to meet normal peak summer demand, but some areas are at elevated risk of supply shortages in the event of “more extreme summer conditions”. Evening solar drop off and a reliance on wind were a common theme across these areas.
“Low wind and high demand periods could result in energy emergencies,” said the report. Similar risks were identified last year and the year before.
Despite these warnings, the US Environmental Protection Agency has issued new power-plant emissions standards that will effectively dismantle baseload coal and gas capacity by 2030, much to the discomfort of grid operators across the country, while utilities have announced plans to retire more than 40 percent of the remaining US coal fleet by 2030. Meanwhile millions of Americans are facing blackout risks right now.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/05/green-energy-blackouts-usa-power-grid/