What the Recent Cold-Weather Blackouts Mean for the Energy Mix
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On Christmas Eve 2022, Duke Energy was forced to roll out cold-weather blackouts in North Carolina for the first time in the history of the company. All told, roughly 500,000 customers were impacted. And, it may have been even worse if not for renewable energy.
How Renewable Energy Sources Can Reduce Cold-Weather Blackouts
The Christmas Eve event was caused by single-digit temperatures that froze certain components at several of Duke’s gas- and coal-fired plants, reducing capacity by about 10%, or 1,300 megawatts. The company also admitted that it underestimated demand as the temperatures plummeted, with actual demand generally landing about 6-10% higher than what the company’s models predicted.
But after sunrise, Duke’s solar sources kicked in and performed perfectly, with no outages. In fact, Duke told regulators that the infusion of solar power helped avoid more blackouts on Christmas Day.
The implication for Duke, as well as all utilities, is that maintaining a diversified energy mix will be critical going forward, including solar combined with energy storage, wind power, gas, coal and nuclear.
The key is maintaining the proper ratio, or balance, of energy sources. For example, the winter storm in Feb. 2021 that impacted the Texas power grid was blamed by some on “too much” renewable energy feeding the grid, with a spotlight on frozen wind turbines. I don’t think this is necessarily true, but it’s certainly a good conversation starter.
In any case, these recent events, coupled with the ongoing impact of climate change, will force utilities to rethink how they operate. The optimal energy mix must be identified and implemented, and emergency planning efforts must account for new and likely more severe types of weather events occurring in the future.
Whether it’s power outages in the traditional sense, or rolling cold-weather blackouts, there is no doubt that utility companies are going to have to up their game in the years and decades to come.
