Today’s LiveWire Spotlight evaluates the latest seasonal assessment issued by NERC’s Reliability Assessment Subcommittee flagging risks to BES reliability and adequacy during the upcoming summer season. The study confirms that all twenty of the North American assessment areas meet traditional adequacy measures (i.e.; on-peak Anticipated Reserve Margin) of projected summer demand, but most of its space is dedicated to the evaluation of extreme weather scenarios – sending a signal that climate change and renewables deployment will be the reliability priorities for years to come.
NERC recommends that BES stakeholders establish a rapid-response framework to deal with capacity shortages that may arise this summer. Still, the ERO remains concerned that a massive heat-wave will prevent inter-area support and overwhelm the system.