The NEXUS Climate Newsletter published the following piece Thursday, covering a North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) study is warning of potential electrical grid issues in parts of the country this summer if the weather’s as hot as predicted. In summarizing the NERC study, however, the publication UTILITY NEWS makes the point:

“Resources should be adequate to meet normal summer peak demand, but adds ‘If summer temperatures spike and become more widespread, the U.S. West, Midwest, Texas and Southeast United States, New England and Ontario may experience resource shortfalls,’ NERC concluded”.

HERE’S THE THURSDAY NEXUS REPORT ON THE GRID RELIABILITY STUDY:

“The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) is warning that much of the US is at risk for power outages if the summer is as hot as scientists are forecasting. This marks the agency’s most expansive warning yet as the coming heat could limit the western US from transferring electricity within the region, further straining electricity supply. Only a few regions of the U.S. may be spared from power outages, according to NERC. “The system is close to its edge,” John Moura, a director at NERC told the Washington Post. “More needs to be done to bolster the system’s resilience.” Investment in more and better electricity transmission is needed as a solution, but interstate disputes over transmission infrastructure siting and supply chain challenges have slowed the transmission permitting process. “There is a huge amount of wind and solar waiting in the queues,” Ric O’Connell, executive director of GridLab told the Washington Post. “We have not been able to bring it online fast enough to replace retiring plants. We need to move faster.” Climate change currently causes rare heat waves to be 3 to 5°F warmer over most of the U.S., and by 2050, U.S. heat waves could be an extra 3 to 5°F warmer.”

My visit to Argonne National Laboratory last week with my WGN colleagues—producer Katharin Czink and video journalist Steve Scheuer—was fascinating and offered us a look the work being done to decarbonize the transportation sector of our country. It’s critical work. We spent time with researcher Dr. Seth Darling and his colleagues at Argonne–among the best and brightest in the world’s scientific community. That visit plus one with the folks at United Airlines at O’Hare, where extensive work is underway to decarbonize air travel, were included with Wednesday evening’s report on our WGN Nine O’Clock News: “Beyond batteries: How scientists at Argonne National Laboratory are improving the future of clean energy”

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WATCH OUR WGN-TV REPORT HERE: