The grid is in better shape this summer. Thank solar and batteries.
Nationwide grid reliability has improved since last summer — and new solar and batteries, not aging coal plants, are the main reason.
It’s set to be an abnormally hot summer this year — but the U.S. grid appears to be in decent shape to handle the heat. The credit goes to a boatload of new solar and storage and a handful of new gas plants.
That’s the upshot of the new summer reliability assessment from the North American Electric Reliability Corp., which oversees the U.S. and Canadian electric systems.
“Record resource additions have strengthened readiness for the summer season,” NERC highlighted, including “a substantial influx of solar and battery” resources — the most prevalent and lowest-cost new sources of grid power — as well as “some new natural gas-fired generators.”
The report contradicts the Trump administration’s claims that aging fossil-fueled plants are needed in order to prevent blackouts. Over the last year, the Department of Energy has forced five coal plants and one oil- and gas-fired power plant to stay online past their planned retirements, citing an energy emergency that grid experts say does not exist. The approach is now being challenged in court.
However, it’s not the presence of expensive old fossil-fueled power plants that has put the grid in a good position heading into the summer — it’s the rapid expansion of solar and energy storage.
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