Posted on 02/24/2023 4:27:54 PM PST by george76
The nation's largest grid operator is warning it may face a major coming shortfall in electric generating capacity as utilities retire more and more traditional fossil fuel power plants.
It's a challenge facing grid operators across the country as power generators mothball coal and natural gas-fired plants for various reasons, such as reducing high maintenance and regulatory compliance costs or cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
...
PJM Interconnection, which manages grid operations across 13 states and the District of Columbia, published new analysis Friday showing retirements outpacing new additions in the coming years that could leave its service area short of thousands of megawatts of capacity by 2030.
"Retirements are at risk of outpacing the construction of new resources, due to a combination of industry forces, including siting and supply chain, whose long-term impacts are not fully known," it said in its report.
PJM said this shortfall is on track due to a "potential timing mismatch" between retirements, growing electricity demand, and the pace of new generation coming online.
Nearly 40,000 megawatts, or 40 gigawatts, of generating capacity in PJM is forecast to retire by 2030, 90% of which is coal and natural gas.
PJM's "low entry scenario" envisions an addition of just over 15,000 megawatts over the same period.
Under its high entry scenario, capacity additions through 2030 would be twice that at 30,000 megawatts, still short of making up for retired capacity.
PJM serves more than 65 million consumers living between northern Illinois and the Eastern Seaboard, including all of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
Traditional generators are retiring rapidly due to government and private sector policies as well as economics, PJM noted.
Coal retirements are forecast to make up well over half of all planned generation retirements in 2023 at 8.9 gigawatts, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Utilities are under increasing pressure from the Biden administration and investors to phase out fossil fuel resources, especially coal, for the sake of mitigating climate change.
The administration, which has a goal of achieving 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035, is also drawing up a suite of regulations to crack down on coal plants after the Trump administration liberalized rules.
The report follows multiple warnings from regulators at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation that utilities, lawmakers, and grid operators need to act to better manage the pace of retirements or else risk more of the blackouts seen during recent extreme weather events.
Several utilities, including TVA and Duke Energy, had to implement controlled outages during peak demand periods in December when winter storm Elliot struck.
PJM had its own issues with generator outages during the storm, during which coal made up nearly half of additional generation, according to a report released Thursday by America's Power, a coal-fired power interest group.
Retiring those resources without having replacements in order further threatens grid reliability, NERC has said.
That's as rational as anything they come up with...
These woke morons will be the death of us all
“Blackout risk: Nation’s largest grid operator warns of capacity shortfalls..”
No one is listening as the democrats slowly kill the country with their crap.
Just as the idiots are trying to eliminate gas powered cars.
Something obvious to any EE.
But well beyond the laughable cognitive abilities of the majority of our politicians.
When the blackouts DO occur, responsible citizens hopefully will drive to the mansions of any politician that supported the green crap and make sure that those houses have no power. Backup generators? Well, if they are on, that’s not “no power”.
“These woke morons will be the death of us all.”
Why the death of us? Look the other way at them.
Rational person views this and says, perhaps we don’t act idiotic and we keep the 40,00 MW stations running.
I can hardly wait to mock those dumbasses while they freeze and starve when the power goes out.
Let the morons reap what they have sown!
We’re fast approaching the point where it’s either us or them.
Fact Check: Did Biden Rescind Trump Order Prohibiting Chinese Influence on US Power Grid?
Maybe,,,just maybe you don’t shut the plants down!
I know...crazy, right?
But it just might work!
More EVs!!!!!!!!!!!
⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡🔌🔌🔌🔌
Don’t let anyone charge their electric cars from the grid.
It's expensive. Germans pay 40 cents (max allowed by law) including taxes and fees where the US average is now about 14 cents including taxes and fees. The power companies here are trying to keep costs down and are forced to close plants instead keeping them on standby.
The bottom line of course is the elite want you dead. No better way than to freeze you to death.
And so does the second largest; and third largest, and fourth... ad nauseum
I can hardly wait to mock those dumbasses while they freeze and starve when the power goes out.
Let the morons reap what they have sown!
They won’t listen. They’ll just blame greedy power companies.
If you like cheap power for charging your government mandated EV, you can keep it. -— Obiden
Consider this. Perhaps the politicians actually know and understand exactly what they are doing. Perhaps blackouts and shortages are part of the plan. Why would they do this, knowing the result? Because they aim to change the world.
The only way people will conserve, for example, is if energy is rare and expensive. Get a gallon of gas up to $10, for example, and you start forcing radical transportation changes. Increase a kWh to $1, and most people will have to conserve. All of this is to save the planet (while further empowering certain people) of course.
Kakistocracy
A kakistocracy is a government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.
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