Texans still remember the devastating winter storm of 2021, when record snowfall, freezing temperatures, and widespread power outages crippled the entire state. Last week, another severe winter blast swept through the region, again causing delays and closures—but this time, the power grid held firm. The resilience of the grid and the lessons learned from past failures were central themes of a recent webinar hosted by the University of Houston Law Center’s Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Center. About 300 people attended the event.
“Reliability means the lights stay on, the electricity stays on all the time, no matter how much electricity is being demanded, no matter what the weather is. Now, of course, we don’t always meet that aspiration,” said keynote speaker Hannah Wiseman, professor and Wilson Faculty Fellow at Penn State Law (University Park), in her opening remarks. She discussed the widespread ramifications of the devastating 2021 winter storm and possible solutions to prevent a repeat of that crisis, such as the role of alternative energy sources—including wind, solar, and nuclear power—in meeting the nation’s growing electricity demand.
In simple terms, the way to ensure the reliability of the power grid is to exactly match the amount of electricity being supplied to the electricity being demanded, she explained, adding that we are living in an electric era.
“We and others have defined the current time as an electric era as more of our daily lives are being electrified…. We have more electrification of cars, houses, and businesses happening, thus creating more load,” Wiseman said. “At the same time, we have more individual users of large load, such as data centers producing artificial intelligence products. There are many data centers such as Amazon and Google. Crypto mining for currency. It is harder to get that electricity into the grid because there are a variety of constraints on generation.”
As power demands increase, the reliability of power grids decreases.
The responsibility for maintaining a stable power grid falls to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), an industry-led, self-governing organization under the oversight of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) since 2006. However, Wiseman said that the NERC may not be equipped to address modern challenges, including growing electricity consumption, the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources, adequate transmission issues and working with state regulations.
“I want to emphasize that I think NERC is doing an incredible job given the challenges it faces but I think it can do even better,” Wiseman said. “And I’m not talking just about NERC. I’m talking about the sub-entities that NERC relies on to do much of its job.”
She explained that NERC delegates much of its authority to these six regional entities, including the Texas Reliability Entity. These sub-entities help develop regulations for reliability. They also provide a lot of critical data to NERC about grid issues and vulnerabilities.
Wiseman emphasized the need for planning ahead to ensure the long-term reliability and security of the power grid.
“I think NERC and the regional entities need to do a lot more thinking about all of the issues I’ve just talked about, the need for flexible resources, about capacity and more creative ways to address capacity challenges,” she said. “Part of that will mean infusing more public values into the NERC.”
This webinar was part of a continuing legal education series provided through the UHLC by the EENR.
For more information about the University of Houston Law Center, visit https://www.law.uh.edu/
Original source can be found here.