Today’s LiveWire Spotlight looks at a Special Reliability Assessment issued by NERC identifying the resource and transmission planning challenges that may arise as generation retirements accelerate in the transition to cleaner energy sources. The study centers on an extreme stress-test scenario – not a prediction – where resource planners, market operators, and regulators poorly manage the change-over, allowing reliability risks to emerge.
NERC’s Special Assessment on the extreme generation retirement scenario confirms that the transition to clean energy can be accommodated if managed carefully. However, all bets are off if favorable economics or government intervention hasten the existing trend.