In the deserts and West Texas, forecasters are warning of temperatures above 110˚F. Almost 40 million people from Arizona to Alabama are under excessive heat warnings and heat advisories on Monday. The risk of blackouts comes into play only if there is extreme heat.īut many Americans in the South and Central regions of the United States are dealing with extreme heat right now. The good news is that officials believe the entire power grid should have enough power to meet normal peak summer demand this year. “The elevated risk outlook is driven by a combination of conventional generation retirements, a substantial increase in forecast peak demand and an increasing threat to reliability from a widespread heat event,” NERC said.
New England and Ontario are also at “elevated” risk of blackouts, NERC said. “Two-thirds of North America is at risk of energy shortfalls this summer during periods of extreme demand,” the North American Energy Reliability Corporation (NERC) concluded in its summer outlook published last month.Īccording to NERC, virtually the entire United States west of the Mississippi River could suffer energy shortages during “extreme conditions.” That includes the Western half of the United States, the Central region and the power system that serves most of Texas. Power grid officials have warned that large swaths of the United States could face blackouts if it’s a hot summer.
Just as demand surges, supply can simultaneously be constrained by problems at power facilities caused by those same sizzling temperatures. Periods of extreme heat stress the grid by spiking demand for electricity as families and businesses crank up the air conditioning to stay cool. The heatwave leaving tens of millions of Americans in sweltering temperatures will test the power grid’s ability to keep the lights on.
0 kommentar(er)
