Hotter weather and drought conditions are expected to drive up energy demand, potentially straining the nation's aging power grid.
With the Eastern U.S. already facing a possible heat wave this weekend, the nation's power grid regulator has a dire warning: Large swaths of the country are at risk of blackouts this summer as climbing temperatures cause surging demand for energy.released this week, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation noted that the Upper Midwest is facing a capacity shortfall leading to a"high risk of energy emergencies." The entire Western U.S.
"Both the extreme heat and drought conditions can take a lot of generation out of service," said Rob Gramlich, president of Grid Strategies, a consulting firm specializing in renewable energy. "If a power line goes down because of a fire, then there can be localized areas that have shortfalls of power. It could be like half a state or could be half a neighborhood," Gramlich said."And they're obviously very hard to predict."
Still, the assessment doesn't mean Midwesterners should start panicking. NERC warned last year that nearly 40% of the U.S. population was at risk of blackouts, but most of the grid, except for the Northwest, remained unaffected, BloombergWhat people should expect is increasing pleas from utilities to conserve power as earlier and more frequent heat waves strain the grid.
"The problem is, we all use electricity at the same time. But we don't have to. We don't have to be charging our electric vehicles when we need air conditioning at four in the afternoon," he said.
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