Middle and northeast US at higher risk of winter power shortfalls, NERC says
NEW YORK, Nov 14 (Reuters) -A broad swath of the United States is at increased risk of electricity shortfalls this winter, as rising electricity demand and risk to fuel supplies pose threats to the stability of the grid during severe weather, an energy regulator said on Thursday.
While the country was largely expected to be prepared to meet winter power demand, prolonged extreme cold and wintry storms would test the central and northeast United States, the North American Electric Reliability Corp said.
At the same time, winter power consumption is surging, FERC said. Most regions are seeing peak demand growth of more than 3% year-over-year, NERC said in its winter reliability assessment.
The Midcontinent, Southwest, New England and New York were at risk of losing supplies of natural gas, which is the country's biggest source of power generation at about 40%, in extreme weather, NERC said.
Gas producing wells can freeze in frigid weather and halt delivery of the critical fuel supply. During winter Storm Elliott in 2022, more than a quarter of power generator outages were caused by fuel problems, NERC said.
Low wind, which generates electricity, insufficient fuel reserves and the longer-ranging trend of retiring fossil-fired power generation before bringing on new supply, also raised concerns about the country's power supply this winter.
Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama
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