The US heating season has officially begun, and new warnings show that a quarter of all Americans could experience energy emergencies this winter if temperatures fall below average due to tight fossil fuel supplies.
Power grids from the Great Lakes to Louisiana, New England, Carolinas, and all of Texas are the most at risk for power supply shortfalls during high-demand periods, according to Bloomberg, citing a new report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a regulatory body that manages grid stability.
NERC said a cold snap for an extended period could spark grid strain due to soaring power demand from households and businesses. This would cause supplies of natural gas, coal, and backup diesel generators to draw down more quickly and possibly experience shortages.
“The trend is we see more areas at risk, we see more retirements of critical generation, fuel challenges and we are doing everything we can.
“These challenges don’t kind of appear out of nowhere,” John Moura, NERC’s director of reliability assessment, said during a media briefing.
For instance, the demand for diesel is rising, but East Coast supplies are at record lows for this time of year. Shortage of fuel used to power the economy, from heating to trucking, has about 25 days left of supplies in storage. Any supply disruption could leave power generation plants with supply gaps this winter.
Jim Matheson, chief executive officer of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, told Bloomberg that electricity demand is set to outpace “available supply during peak winter conditions, consumers face an inconceivable but real threat of rolling blackouts.”
Matheson warned: “It doesn’t have to be this way. But absent a shift in state and federal energy policy, this is a reality we will face for years to come.”
NERC’s warning about unstable grids covers about a quarter of the US population. The average household is expected to pay 47% more for electricity than a year ago — and there are at least 20 million households behind on utility bills.
The tightest power supplies are expected to be in the central US, managed by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator due to a large number of generators shut last winter and Gulf Coast power plants aren’t shielded against cold snaps. Then there’s New England, consists of six states in the US Northeast, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, which faces NatGas shortfalls due to inadequate pipeline infrastructure.
“There is a very real possibility that New England could be facing a dire set of consequences this winter,” James Danly, a commissioner on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, warned Thursday.
Rapid decarbonization of the electricity sector is one of the main reasons America’s power grid is less reliable than ever before. Solar and wind are inconsistent, as Europe found out last winter, which only paves the path for a nuclear future.
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If we only had a hundred million more evs everything would be wonderful.
Think of the heat they can provide for those cold winter nights….
Electric Cars Keep Bursting Into Flames
Electric cars are not safe. Chevrolet has advised that you don’t park one of their one Bolts within 50 feet of another vehicle, and certainly not in your garage unless you want your house to burn down.
Yet still Democrats demand that we drive electric vehicles, no matter how dangerous, expensive, and bad for the environment. No doubt they have their reasons.
Cue up Lawrence Welk and the bubble machine, “ah, wunnerful, wunnerful”.
Yeah! Friday fear pron!
Sooo sick of the GD fear mongering!
Peace, L.
News that gives one a heads-up about impending problems is not a problem in itself.
That’s falling for how they want you think of their bluster, fear mongering and predictive programming and is a lack of courage to stay disconnected and above. I am proof that you are not in the least dangerously less informed by ignoring it all. I try to only very selectively let fully awake kindred spirits in and if I make a mistake I quick slam the door at any partial glimpse like it’s mind poison and have especially ramped up that effort since March 2020 commencements.
Factual news is not fear porn. It’s like a check engine light.
Yup,
My west side of Michigan town is pretty much fucked thanks to obama shutting down our coal fired power plant just so we can get power from another coal fired power plant, all the friggen way on the east side of Michigan.
Shit for brains politicians…..Winter is coming.
A rail strike would not help….
Rail strike threat escalates as third union rejects deal
The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB) announced Monday its members voted against ratifying a tentative agreement with the major freight railroads, making IBB the third labor group to turn down the deal brokered by the Biden administration and upping the chances of a nationwide strike.
Michael Yon cites (and links) the above in a pessimistic assessment….
From my hilltop, the rail strike appears as if it will happen. I’ve been saying this during recent times. Not based on following negotiation details. I am ignoring the details. Details in this case are weeds. Am watching the climate, the conditions. Under my working paradigm, malicious hands wish to see collapse of United States, and more.
https://gab.com/Michael_Yon/posts/109363678286437222
I’m mildly dyslexic, so at first I misread the headline as:
All Americans At Risk For A Quarter When Out From Looming Black Power
Looks like it’s going to be a rough winter north of the Florida Georgia line. O well.
Blackouts in the hood will be interesting.
A much lower demand for power the following day. Unless you count the demand on the coroner’s office and funeral home.
Ohhh, That’s why they’re always out on the front steps….. Good for them, getting some vitamin D.
Maybe, but you would need NV or Thermal to see/know it.
Unless somebody smiled.
Seems like the smart thing to do would be to BAN plugging in EVs. They say its the equivalent of having a large A/C unit running when they are being charged.
Power failures, while inconvenient, should be the least of people’s concerns.
It’s cardiac failure they should be worried about.
Tick Tock…
Yup, saw that more than a time or two when I lived in Massholeville (don’t ask).
There were times when It was colder than a polar bear’s ass. I’m sure you know how that is, you know, the times when you don’t dare to touch your ear because it might break off, the times when you start to wonder if fur-lined jock-straps are available, when the ‘yellowish’ mucus river below your nose is already frozen? So, you’re already pissed-off and just now you realize that your wifey having washed her car from last October, left the hose still screwed onto the spigot with the spray nozzle still on the business end too! Do you think the hose will be running the water meter about the speed of a male rabbit “gettin’ some”? Oh hell yeah, at least by next May. (Not the rabbit, he gets it all the time, the lucky fucker.. Unless this fucked-up weather doesn’t change.
Yes, THOSE times.
Guy trudges out all dressed in the Mack (Mackinaw) and wearing unlatched, unbuckled whatever-they-are, rubber boots, and still in his flannel jammies, with his trusty WalFart “Sno-Plower” plastic shovel. Oh, yes, I should mention his wearing the obligatory Boston Bruins fantastic men’s authentic “pro locker room beanie “Cuff” “, with the bleeding pom, no less. Takes a few unsuccessful swipes against the iced over white shit on the driveway and is huffing a plume of open-mouth vapor that would rival Moby’s Dick, and……Poof. Keels over.
So, yeah, yas gotta good point dere. Hey! Grab me a Sam Adams while yas up, would ya, heh? Atta boy.
Wood stoves/K1 lanterns/a determination to go though to the other side.
See those who agree on the other side/then….,the fun begins.
The cat is right.
I’ve kept this one bookmarked. Not much of an Infowars fan but this was good.
https://www.infowars.com/posts/the-temporary-collapse-of-texas-is-foreshadowing-the-total-collapse-of-the-united-states/
I worked in the power generation industry. This is correct. The interconnections of transmission lines have taken out the whole east coast in one event and Canada and the whole west coast in one event. So far the mid-west has not had a major failure, but that will be coming. These failures take a long time to recovery from because few plants have black plant start up capability. With electronic ignition of most heating systems and appliances, you won’t have gas heat either.
After working for a utility company, I now make it a point to have a multi fuel generator, and a couple K1 heaters for backup.