Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire - Major Energy and Environmental News and Commentary affecting the Nuclear Industry. Nuclear Activities
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Webinar Registration - Zoom
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Dear Friends,
The future of electric utilities, as they are now constituted and regulated, could be dire.
The agent of change is the weather. The new normal is more frequent and more intense weather events, which bear down on the electric utilities as on nothing else.
Consider these issues this year and beyond:
Blackouts when supply falls below demand. California and Texas have been identified but other regions, like the Midwest and the Carolinas, are on watch lists. These stresses reflect growing demand as well as the switch to renewables from fossil fuel generation.
Supply chain constriction, delaying the restoration of power where there has been heavy damage to transformers and substations. Even bucket trucks are on backorder.
Wildfires and other damage may trigger lawsuits, which drove Pacific Gas and Electric into bankruptcy and is threatening Hawaiian Electric.
The customer challenges. Heat domes and solar vortexes push up the “must-have” demand of customers for electricity, and many will have difficulty with their bills. But electricity in extreme heat and cold is a necessity, making cutoffs a major challenge for the utilities. Lives will be at stake.
To look at these challenges to the utilities this year and going forward, the United States Energy Association has scheduled the next in its series of virtual press briefings for Wednesday, Aug. 7 at 11 a.m. EDT.
As the organizer and host of these unique briefings (which I call “press conferences on the air”), I want to have as wide a participation as possible with as many views as possible.
The format of these briefings, held monthly, is simple: A panel of senior journalists who cover energy questions a panel of experts on the subject at hand.
This time the subject is the stresses on utilities occasioned by aberrant weather; the likelihood of serious blackouts; and the future of utilities as they face new uncertainties, from how their infrastructure can be hardened against severe weather to how to restore power expeditiously, to the long-term effects of weather on utility ownership and regulation.
I invite anyone who has opinions on the future of the industry under the new weather reality to contact me about joining the panel of experts.
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