Regulators in many parts of the country are attempting to further speed the build-out of renewable energy in response to concerns about climate change. A number of states have enacted mandates to eliminate carbon emissions from the grid in the coming decades, and the Biden administration has set a goal to do so by 2035.
The pace of change, hastened by market forces and long-term efforts to reduce carbon emissions, has raised concerns that power plants will retire more quickly than they can be replaced, creating new strain on the grid at a time when other factors are converging to weaken it.
Curt Morgan, CEO of
Vistra Corp. , which operates the nation's largest fleet of competitive power plants selling wholesale electricity, said he is worried about reliability risks in New York, New England and other markets as state and federal policy makers pursue ambitious goals to quickly phase out fossil fuel-fired power plants. His concern is that the plants will retire before replacements such as wind, solar and battery storage come online, he said, given the cost and challenge of quickly building enough batteries to have meaningful supply reserves.
"Everything is tied to having electricity, and yet we're not focusing on the reliability of the grid. That's absurd, and that's frightening," he said. "There's such an emotional drive to get where we want to get on climate change, which I understand, but we can't throw out the idea of having a reliable grid."
https://www.wsj.com/articles/americas-power-grid-is-increasingly-unreliable-11645196772I am glad Texas did not join some states in mandating the elimination of carbon emissions from the grid. It is much more important to focus on the reliability of the grid than respond to the emotional drive about climate change.
