Owen Klinsky
Contributor
A group of renewable energy developers and environmental activists are pushing the largest U.S. grid operator to abandon its proposal to prevent energy shortfalls, according to a letter released Tuesday.
Hundreds of millions of Americans are at risk of experiencing power shortages this winter as data centers have helped drive a surge in electricity demand, with grid unreliability causing grid operator PJM to propose a fast-tracked process for 50 additional power plants to connect to the system. Now, a group of unnamed green energy producers are pushing the grid operator to abandon the effort, issuing a letter to PJM and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that suggests there isn’t a clear “emergency and reliability imperative” for boosting reliability and that the initiative wouldn’t hold up in court. (RELATED: Texas Is Booming On A Brittle Power Grid, Posing ‘Disastrous’ Risks For All Of America)
“The proposal is a blatant attempt to perpetrate undue discrimination and preference,” the letter states. “PJM management has acted as if there is an emergency and reliability imperative, but PJM has never defined ‘the need’ it must address.”
Like New England, the PJM grid from IL to NJ is generating very little electricity from wind and has had to resort to burning oil
In both places it’s the same reason: pro-scarcity climate activists have created a scarcity of reliable energy supplies pic.twitter.com/WIZdCZWwA7
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 24, 2022
The initiative, entitled the “Reliability Resource Initiative (RRI): Interim Accelerated Interconnection Process,” would allow up to 50 new generation projects to be connected to the grid alongside a slew of previously approved power facilities, according to the most recent version of the PJM proposal. The queue of already approved projects are made up almost entirely of green energy sources, which PJM notes are “intermittent and limited-duration resources,” and thus multiple megawatts of renewable power is needed to replace one megawatt of fossil fuel power.
In addition to the slew of renewable energy companies, environmental activist groups have also come out in opposition to the RRI, with attorneys for the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, PennFuture and Earthjustice telling E&E News, “RRI is unjust and unreasonable as it retroactively changes the terms for projects that have been waiting years in the interconnection queue, and is unduly discriminatory against certain technologies.”
American energy demand could exceed supply before the end of the decade, with an October report from consultancy Bain finding utilities may need to increase their annual power generation by as much as 26% by 2028. A study from grid watchdog the North American Electric Reliability Corporation found the shortfall was largely driven by Democratic green energy mandates.
PJM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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“Hundreds of millions of Americans are at risk of experiencing power shortages this winter”
Until those hundreds of millions actually experience said power shortages, few will care.
Education that there is no CO2 or made made climate crisis will help.
maybe not. The Church of the Satanic Gases, aka man-made climate catastrophe, is a religion based on hot air, lies, and massive grifting. Dissuading true believers is an impossible chore.
And there is the class that just hate all oil, coal, and gas companies and could not care less about “climate”. It is just that any reason to attack their “enemies” is a good reason.
Somewhere on any specific grid there will be a FF powerplant. It will get the blame for the power shortages. The cry will go up we need more renewables.
Maybe that claim will go unheeded. Trump is pushing for less legacy news outlet pressers – inclusion of more independents. Fewer of them are DNC propaganda outlets.
And there is evidence that many will not care, even then.
So reality is rudely disturbing those green dreams of “clean” “renewable” intermittent wind and solar sources to supply the system? Who could have possibly known this reckoning was inevitable from the start? /sarc
Like, you mean green energy ain’t gonna be dirt cheap and extremely dependable? I’m shocked! /s
Because I had outages- I’m finally springing for a generator. I’ve got a great electrician to install it- just gotta decide on the generator and where to buy it.
Get one that hooks into and is powered by your current Natural Gas/Propane supply. That way, when ruinable supplies fail, your generator will automatically kick on.
California is banning Natural Gas hook-up in new construction.
They are sure to expand that to mandate removal in existing
buildings.
Diversity only applies to knife wielders.
And has already basically banned small generators.
We got ours from Generac a few years ago. We live out in the country – on the grid – but with dozens of single point failures due to a single feed from 5.5 miles away. With a few UPS in the house, we only know of power failures via one-of-four monitors powering off for about 15 seconds and a “PF” indicator on the oven. It’s awesome. And cool being the only house in miles with lights. If prolonged, it’s party time with neighbors who stop by for drinks, snacks and great conversations!
A whole house generator with automatic transfer is sure nice. But mine, an 11kw Generac, gobbles roughly a gallon of propane an hour, and its only real benefit is also powering the well when it refills a 1000 gallon tank.
I almost always rely on a Honda 2200 with extension cords to fridge, freezer, furnace, and one for computers and a couple of lights. One gallon of gasoline lasts 10-15 hours.
A duel fuel 4400 generator lasts about 15 hours on one propane bottle (“standard”, 5? 3? gallons).
A standard propane bottle is 20 lbs, at 4.11 lbs to the US gallon the answer is 4.866 gallons, near enough 5.
Sounds good. One advantage to heating with oil or gas, as opposed to electric baseboards or a heat pump, is that the wattage requirement is significantly lower and you can get by with the smaller portable generator. Not sure how you connect your furnace to the Honda, but you might consider (if you haven’t done so already) wiring in a manual transfer switch (about $80) to provide a simple receptacle for an extension cord and prevent the unsafe condition where the generator’s power can feed back into your home’s wiring.
But the thermostats and furnace control system require electricity. Our thermostats have batteries in them, but there is no backup for the control system.
That’s what the generator is for.
You may also need to pay attention to the earthing if the boiler. Some safety cutouts depend on a viable earth to allow the furnace to operate.
You won’t buy it in California
In October 2021, California signed Assembly Bill 1346 into law, a
bill that aimed to prohibit the sale of new gas-powered, small off-
road engines and phase out certain equipment by January 2024.
Other Democrat run states will soon follow.
Yuh, I better get it real soon, here in Wokeachusetts.
Thankfully reality has ensured that few such states now exist. Maybe reality with step in now that so many nations are quietly starting to back off net-zero and the nonsense that that brings.
It wasn’t California that signed it. It was Gavin Newsom that signed it.
Gavin Newsom outlawed the sale of all small gasoline powered engines in California.
Gavin Newsom is “Saving the Planet”.
Nevada however, is more than happy to sell you a gasoline powered chainsaw and sales in Nevada are up.
California firefighters will have to wait for batteries to charge before fighting fires with chainsaws.
I’ve had a Briggs & Stratton, 10kw, propane generator for 15 years now, and it’s been very reliable.
Make sure to also get an automatic transfer switch, which senses the power loss and automatically starts the generator and transfers the house to the generator.
Generac has been a major player in this market.
They gobble fuel, and are usually way more power than is needed. I used a power meter on my setup (Honda 2200 for fridge, freezer, furnace, and computers) and it settled down to 120w steady, occasionally bumping to 200 or 250.
My electrician, a well seasoned guy, age 75- recommended getting a 5,000 W generator. I’ve been reading that the type known as inverters are better but they’re way more expensive.
I’ve been running a 5 kW non-inverting Kawasaki generator for the last 20 years or so (not continuously!), and the power output isn’t quite clean enough to make my UPSes happy. Other than that it’s been fine though. If it ever gives out, my next one will probably be an inverter. I don’t think I had that option back then, at least not in an easy and convenient selection of models like today.
hmmmm… I have 3 PCs set up with UPSs .How do the UPSs not like it? Do they turn on using battery power? I’d probably just forget about the computers during an outage. I’d probably turn off the UPSs. Or maybe newer non-inverting generators are better.
There’s UPSs and there’s UPSs.
As with everything, you get what you pay for.
A good one will incorporate voltage spike protection, millisecond switch-over to battery during brown-out or outage detection, and of course ample warning time for approaching battery exhaustion.
I only use APC brand. I usually get the bigger ones to be safe. I also install their software. The cheaper models don’t have a cable that the software requires.
“My electrician, a well seasoned guy, age 75- recommended getting a 5,000 W generator”
This is a good recommendation, especially with larger generators. The advantage of the inverter is that the engine doesn’t have to run at a constant RPM. This saves fuel and, perhaps even more importantly, greatly reduces the amount of noise as the engine is usually running near idle except when a heavy load switches on.
I have a Honda 2000, which is light enough to move around (e.g. for camping, or when I need to use a chainsaw ,or other tool well away from an outlet.)
The other advantage of portable inverter models is that you can often combine two generators with one acting as the frequency reference for the other.
I personally think the portable battery power packs offer a lot of benefits at less capital and maintenance cost. I live in Kentucky – we had one 8 day ice caused power outage but a minimal (about 0) outages longer that 4 hours. This type of power pack protects the refrigerator, medically required devices, phones and computers.
It sounds like the Watermelons want the grid to fail. My guess is that they want America to be literally and figuratively “Powerless”…powerless to defend itself and thereby ripe for invasion and overthrow.
It’s the ‘Tinker Bell Effect’ They never got beyond Peter Pan and the theory that if you believe in nonsense hard enough, it will actually happen.
That’s what the Duck Test says.
The invasion has been on going for the last 4 years. Just waiting on the signal for the overthrow to begin. probably shortly after Jan 20, 1925
I know, more than 25,000 able bodied male Chinese Nationals crossing our southern border…From Mexico! That’s a regular 5th column invasion force.
2025
What does PJM stand for?
Pennsylvania, Jersey, Maryland. It was the original footprint of the PJM RTO.
From the above article:
“. . . with grid unreliability causing grid operator PJM to propose a fast-tracked process for 50 additional power plants to connect to the system.”
Not mentioned anywhere in the article is the attendant COST of “fast tracking” those 50 new grid connects.
One thing that you can count on nowadays is that the publicized purpose of a proposed program or project rarely describes what is really intended by the proposers of such. Want the most obvious example: the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
I suggest a deeper-dive into the wording of the PJM Reliability Resource Initiative proposal for “fast-tracking”, looking for words and phrases such as:
— “cost”
— “subsidies”
— “payments”
— “assistance”
— “charges to consumers”.
Also, it isn’t at all clear that connecting “additional power plants” to an electrical grid increases its overall reliability . . .sure, it increases the “reliability” (operating output margin) of being able to provide power in time of maximum demand or if a given connected power station goes off-line, but it does not and cannot increase the reliability of existing transmission-of-power over the existing grid infrastructure (mainly long distance transmission lines, their supporting towers, transformer stations and their distribution systems down to the user level).
IMHO, the “renewable energy developers and environmental activists ” seeking to block this proposed RRI program have the right overall idea, just the wrong detailed justifications.
availability v reliability
Meanwhile, here in western Wokeachusetts:
State climate law leaves locals uneasy
https://www.recorder.com/State-climate-law-leaves-locals-uneasy-58339912
here’s the beginning of the article
Story tip
Petitions are all the rage
A petition opposing a potential knighthood for London Mayor Sadiq Khan has surpassed its 50,000-signature target within just 48 hours of launching.
https://www.gbnews.com/politics/sadiq-khan-knighthood-petition-60000-signatures
Incidentally, the GE petition is up to 2,969,568
I signed ‘em both
Reality bites again!
Are the stooges touting themselves as the “group of unnamed green energy producers” aware that pResident Quid Pro Pardon Me Joe Bidet is on the verge of declaring a CLIMATE EMERGENCY so he can go out as a bona fide DICTATOR before the toilet is flushed on him?
Nope Does not work like that. Zero times any number remains ZERO.
Intermitten generators offer nothing more than a small fuel saving for natural fuel generators. They are in no way a replacement.
I am against smart meters but I think all organizations, governments and individuals should be mandated to have them. Then we can control the amount of energy they receive to the percentage created by wind and solar and only when wind and solar are producing. All of this nonsense would disappear within a month.
I meant all organizations, governments and individuals pushing net zero.
ToldYouSo,
The current western world is currently awash with people paid to tell others what they can and cannot do. You want more of this? Get a grip, read some classic books about freedom, like Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” and Edith Efron’s “The Apocalyptics”. Geoff S
Thank you for your comment and advice, which I think I’ll set aside.
In return, I observe that in any civilized society there is no such thing as complete “freedom”. Related to that, I suggest you read that classic, “The Constitution of the United States of America”.
As for your comment: “The current western world is currently awash with people paid to tell others what they can and cannot do.” Thankfully, that is literally true . . . it’s known as “the rule of law”, and in the US has been developed and codified over more than 200 years by paid bureaucrats (Congressional representatives and members of state legislatures) and paid members of the Judicial branch at Federal and state levels.
Of course, you always have the “freedom” to ignore what a police officer tells you to do. 🤔
From the letter:
The Proposal is a blatant attempt to perpetrate undue discrimination and preference for the benefit of a select few load-serving entities (“LSEs”) in PJM that want to monopolize the opportunity to serve surging data center load and use PJM’s Tariff to do so. The Board should direct PJM management to shelve its Proposal and not file it at the FERC. PJM’s Proposal will not survive review from the FERC or the Courts.
One of the responsibilities of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is to ensure the reliability of high voltage interstate transmission system. Wirh recent disastrous events demonstrating the reduction in reliability of transmission systems that rely too much on intermittent power generation, it seems completely consistent with FERC mandates to favor new power genertion that comes from reliable sources. I’d love to see the
renewablefickle energy consortium take this to court and explain why PJM should be forced to accept as much new fickle energy generation as reliable energy generation to somehow even the playing field. The public wants to know why our power systems must become less reliable—in violation of FERC mandates—to satisfy the greed of the already heavily subsidized fickle energy cabal.“…PJM notes are “intermittent and limited-duration resources,” and thus multiple megawatts of renewable power is needed to replace one megawatt of fossil fuel power.”
This statement is wrong. Renewable power capacity can not replace fossil fuel power capacity. There must be adequate fossil fuel power capacity as backup to meet demand in case renewable output falls to zero. Renewable output is a function of unpredictable natural energy flows (i.e. wind and solar). When the wind and solar generation drop off, fossil fuel is dispatched. Anyone who does not see the necessity for dispatchable power to meet 100% of all demand, all the time, should review the UK GridWatch data record. It measures and records at 5 minutes intervals the power from different sources in the UK. It’s shows quite an amazing balancing act being performed.
My thought to fix this large issue is fairly simple. Put a micro-nuclear plant on every military base in the US. Each base already has a robust grid connection so nothing new is needed to feed into our existing grid. The military base is already secured. There does not have to be a lot of expensive red tape as it would be a Federal project on Federal land. This would also make our national defense stronger as the bases would already be running as self-sufficient should something happen to a regional or national grid. As a bonus, instead of each base paying a large electric bill the military could actually make money by selling excess power. Win-win in my opinion.
The insanity will continue until excessive damage is inflicted.
This will be followed by torches and pitchforks.