2 New Official Reports Shout Out That America’s Electric Reliability Is In Great Danger
Submitted by EnergyTechStocks.com
Two new reports – one from the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST), the other from the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) – add up to the starkest warning yet that America’s electric reliability is in great danger.
The PCAST report’s main point is that the federal government appears to be seriously underestimating how much additional electricity the nation will require by 2030. The NERC report warns that America is falling way behind on building the new transmission lines that will be needed to handle surging demand growth.
The PCAST report has major implications for the rapidly-developing electric car industry. The report notes that while the federal government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) is forecasting a 29% increase in U.S. power demand by 2030, if plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs) and all-electric vehicles (EVs) become “wildly popular,” demand growth “could end up being much greater,” requiring many additional power plants.
The PCAST report is a direct challenge to PHEV advocates’ claim that widespread use of electric vehicles would not require additional generation because vehicles would largely be refilled during the overnight hours, when power demand is at its lowest. Should the PCAST report’s conclusion become generally accepted, the rapid growth in PHEV sales that advocates expect after the vehicles are introduced in 2009 and 2010 could be thwarted.
Meanwhile, NERC has warned that while transmission lines are “the critical link” between power producers and consumers, “we continue to see transmission development lag behind generation additions. Faster siting, permitting, and construction of transmission resources will be vital to keeping the lights on in coming years.”
For NERC, the industry’s reliability watchdog group, to even hint at the possibility that America’s lights mightn’t stay on is shocking, given the organization’s mindset to low key even the most serious reliability issues the power industry faces.
