"Abe Silverman’s Christmas Eve quickly went from low-key to frantic when Winter Storm Elliott brought a power grid emergency to much of the Eastern seaboard.
Silverman, who worked for New Jersey’s energy regulator at the time, was visiting family in Brooklyn when calls started coming in about power plants failing amid freezing temperatures — a crisis that grid operators across the Eastern U.S. did not see coming.
“It was an experience that nobody sitting in that seat wants to go through,” said Silverman, who was general counsel at the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.
A year later, Elliott’s aftermath is changing the conversation about how to keep the lights on 24/7 as extreme weather intensifies, electricity demand grows and the country shifts to clean energy. The storm also revealed the vulnerability of natural gas, the largest source of electric power nationwide, to extreme cold conditions.
A chilling report from the North American Electric Reliability Corp. and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission illustrates what’s at stake. Characterized by high winds, intense snowfall and freezing temperatures, Winter Storm Elliott jeopardized the operation of the grid from Nebraska to New England to the Southeast."
Miranda Willson reports for E&E News December 15, 2023.
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