New York Faces Energy Shortages This Summer

New York has painted itself into a corner with its Green Energy™ policy. Extended heat wave could cripple New York’s grid this summer: NYISO. NYISO, or ISO, is the New York Independent System Operator. They run the grid for NY State.

New York legisators have demanded that the state cut back on the evil fossil fuels, and now are looking at problems for the summer.

“This assessment reflects the challenges of the grid in transition — declining reliability margins, performance issues with aging generators, and an absence of new dispatchable resources,” [Aaron Markham, ISO vice president of operations] said.

Dispatchable resources have been gas-powered turbine generators. They can be fired up fairly quickly, as these things go, and added to the grid to deal with extreme temperatures, lack of wind/solar generation, etc. They've been forbidden by a green energy law in NY.

So what happens if things go bad for the grid?

The ISO can take emergency actions, including purchasing energy, calling for voluntary industrial curtailment and allowing a reduction in operating reserves

Shutting down your idustrial grid, or asking them to "voluntarily cut back," doesn't seem like the way to grow your economy. Is New York trying to attract any AI data centers?

Things are so bad that even the politicians are waking up to reality.

The state has fallen behind on its decarbonization goals, and Gov. Kathy Hochul is considering rewriting landmark 2019 climate legislation to provide a longer path towards a carbon-free electric grid.

"Landmark" is not the word I would use. I do love it when politicians pretend to be engineers.

I think we are likely to see another NYC blackout in the next few years, probably associated with an extreme summer heatwave. Maybe not this summer, but soon.

Hat tip to William Teach at Pirate's Cove: New York’s Over-Reliance On “Green” Energy Could Cause Blackouts

Well, when you get rid of reliable coal, natural gas, and nuclear energy generation you are left with unreliable, undependable, and more expensive energy, which cannot meet the demands of more and more consumers/businesses, even with all those people moving out of NY.