The power grid in a country as wealthy and technologically sophisticated as the U.S. should never waver.
Once again, the U.S. power grid is hanging by a thread. The huge snowfall that blanketed the Eastern part of the country this past weekend was only the start. While snow and ice knocked out power to roughly 1 million customers, the bigger threat came with the chilling cold that lingers days after the storm. Electric power networks from Texas to Maine are struggling to meet record demand.
They are mostly succeeding, but it is a close-run race. Unable to get enough natural gas, some New England power companies have shifted to burning oil, a dirty and expensive last resort. Now they are draining those backup fuel tanks at an alarming clip. “This may be a record-setting depletion of fuel inventories,” Manhattan Institute analyst Ken Girardin told me.
When energy supplies are this tight, almost anything can trigger a crisis: a clogged gas pipeline, mechanical failures at overworked power plants, or simply running out of fuel. If producers can’t meet demand, grid operators will be forced to institute rolling blackouts. Everyone in the power industry remembers what happened in 2021 when winter storms in Texas crippled pipelines, wind turbines and other energy sources. Millions went without power for days. Roughly 250 died.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the Wall Street Journal (paywall)
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James B. Meigs is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a City Journal contributing editor.
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