Second group warns of summer blackouts due to dependence on wind, solar | Eastern NC Now

A second organization has issued a warning of the potential for blackouts this summer due to a strained electric grid and overdependence on unreiable wind and solar energy.  The previous report had issued a warning for 32 states including North Carolina, but this report is centered on 18 states and North Carolina is not among them.

Germany has faced similar situations with prolonged "wind droughts" where wind turbines were producing far less than capacity if they were producing at all.  These wind conditions tend to happen in summer when there is high electric demand for airconditioning.  Germany survived without blackouts by importing power from nuclear-powered France and coal-powered Poland.  Germany's Energy Transition under Merkel had moved the country to high reliance on intermittant power sources of wind and solar.

The United States does not have the depth of alternative power supply from other countries that Germany has had to keep its grid up when wind and solar fail to meet the demand.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NAERC) report cited the unreliability of wind power as the biggest danger to the grid.  "Wind generator performance during periods of high demand is a key factor in determining whether there is sufficient electricity supply on the system", the report declares. Factors like rain, fog, cloud cover, and, of course, nighttime also can limit solar power production.

With sufficient warning, grid operators can manage to avoid the whole system going down by doing a rolling blackout, where they shut down parts of the grid for a few hours before moving to another part of it to shut down.  However there have already been cases in other countries where loss of wind turbine electric supply happens too suddenly and takes the whole grid down with it for an extended period.  A "black restart" in such conditions is more difficult to do with reliance on wind and solar and can take days to accomplish.

https://www.nerc.com/pa/RAPA/ra/Reliability%20Assessments%20DL/NERC_SRA_2024.pdf

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/us-power-grid-may-become-unreliable-summer-watchdog-warns