Buckeye Power submitted comments to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ahead of the upcoming technical conference to discuss issues surrounding the threat to electric system reliability posed by climate change and extreme weather events.
In the comments, Buckeye Power:
- explains why existing market constructs should be modified to compensate generation resources for reliability attributes that are otherwise not recognized and why higher reliability standards should be imposed;
- emphasizes the need for immediate action to prevent controllable, dispatchable, fuel-secure thermal generation from being retired prematurely resulting in decreased reliability and increased costs for consumers;
- maintains that a diverse resource portfolio that includes fuel-secure thermal resources must be maintained and may need to be located within each RTO/ISO;
- explains why there will need to be sufficient time for the electric industry to adapt to infrastructure changes that reflect planning horizons realistically in order not to jeopardize service reliability and affordability;
- describes why better coordination between electric and gas industries involving pipeline usage and natural gas demand is essential because of the growing dependence on natural gas generation and the increased likelihood of extreme winter weather events; and
- stresses that in the longer-term, grid reliability and affordability must be maintained from existing resources, including fuel-secure thermal resources, until new technology develops that will allow decarbonization of the electric sector (in whatever form that takes) and other sectors of the economy to occur on a reliable and affordable basis.
Click here to read Buckeye Power's comments to FERC.
