WSJ: ‘Good luck’ holding renewables grid together

The Wall Street Journal published an article last week titled “Renewables, and Good Luck, Prop Up Power Grid Through Extreme Heat.” The authors are right that ‘good luck’ is propping up the grid in many states — but it’s because renewables are destabilizing the grid, not making it more robust. Describing the perfect storm of more intermittent energy sources and high temperatures as “renewables to the rescue,” is misleading.

The article describes MISO’s difficulties in handling the heat this August:

One of the closest calls came in August, when a Midwest operator sounded alarms during a hot spell. Power plants tripped offline as soaring temperatures stressed the units after weeks of heavy usage. The operator called on all remaining generators to prepare to run at full steam to prevent rolling blackouts, a last-resort means of keeping supply and demand in balance.

The scenario has become increasingly common for the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO. Had temperatures climbed further, residents from Louisiana to Montana might have faced stretches without electricity.

Despite the success this summer, MISO says it faces challenges ahead as its surplus supplies, or reserve margins, dwindle. The operator recently warned that it has to lean more heavily on emergency measures to maintain balance.

While applauding the “addition of solar and storage” projects within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates Texas’ fragile and semi-independent grid, the article notes that “some new natural-gas generation” benefited the Texas grid this summer. “The absence of a heat dome that sat on top of the state for much of the 2023 summer also helped.”

The Southwest Power Pool, which ranges “from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota,” is warning of supply shortages and seems to understand the issues at stake:

SPP published a paper this year outlining the challenges it faces, with new wind farms replacing coal and natural-gas plants as the region’s primary sources of power generation. It said that an increase in extreme weather, combined with transmission constraints, lack of storage capacity and power-plant retirements, have made it increasingly difficult to maintain supply and demand balance when temperatures surge or drop.

Shutting down reliable power, then crossing our fingers for good luck, is no way to run a grid.