Yet, some say natural gas is the best option for right now, as utilities close older power plants and add more renewables, steps that upend the traditional power grid. “They don’t seem to see the writing on the wall that gas is not this, reliable resource,” said Maggie Shober, research director at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. Yet, despite those investments, when the cold hit again last year, equipment at natural gas and coal-powered plants throughout the south-east still froze.Ĭlean energy advocates and grid experts argue the December weather proved the growing number of natural gas plants, which now supply more than one-third of the nation’s electricity, are not the right choice to deal with extreme weather and are delaying a move to less climate-polluting alternatives.ĭespite that, Duke, Southern Company, TVA and others are looking past that argument and building more gas plants anyway. The near miss came after those two utilities, among others, spent billions preparing the grid for such a storm after the 2014 polar vortex, when record cold weather exposed vulnerabilities in the power grid. And in some parts of the country, as much as 63% of the outages came from natural gas plants, according to the PJM Interconnection, an organization that operates the largest regional power grid in the US. It still wasn’t enough for two of the nation’s largest electric utilities.Īs temperatures plummeted to 40F (4.4C) in a few hours and gale force winds swept across the region between 23 and 24 December, the pre-holiday preparations were put on pause as Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and Duke Energy implemented historic rolling blackouts lasting about 30 minutes to an hour.īy some accounts the utilities’ inability to supply power during the extreme weather almost plunged the entire eastern US into darkness.
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