Federal energy regulators and the North American grid reliability watchdog have launched a joint review of the power sector’s performance during a prolonged and widespread January cold snap.
While the bulk power system weathered the storms without major incident, operators “in some regions did experience challenges in maintaining system reliability,” the North American Electric Reliability Corp. said in the Tuesday announcement.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and NERC’s Regional Entities will also participate in the review, which will look at “winter preparation activities and gather information to help guide future winter storm preparations and operations.”
From Jan. 10 to Jan. 16 a pair of winter storms impacted regions across the United States and Canada. The grid operator for most of Texas posted multiple winter peak demand records and twice called on consumers to reduce power usage.
The FERC-NERC review will examine the progress made to improve grid reliability since Winter Storm Uri in 2021 and Winter Storm Elliott in 2022. Results of the study are expected by June, they said.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas grid came close to a total collapse during Uri in 2021, and ultimately almost 250 people died amid rolling blackouts. The storm led to widespread efforts to improve power reliability in the state.
At one point during Elliott in 2022, almost a quarter of the PJM Interconnection’s generating capacity was unexpectedly offline.
FERC last year approved new cold weather reliability standards for U.S. generators. Still, much of the U.S. bulk power system faces an elevated risk of blackouts in extreme winter weather, NERC warned in November.
