Today’s LiveWire Spotlight examines a joint report issued by NERC and FERC concerning the causes of 183 generator outages, derates, or start-up failures in the south-central U.S. during unusually cold weather on January 15-19, 2018. The investigative team attributes 28% of the unit failures directly and indirectly to the extreme cold; raising questions about the viability of winterization plans and their execution.
The joint investigative team recommends that NERC develop cold weather preparation reliability requirements. If implemented, GOs and GOPs would have to maintain and execute emergency plans and share them with their BAs and RCs prior to the winter season.