New York Preps To Avoid Repeat Of Texas’ Grid Mayhem As Winter Looms

New York’s grid operator modeled a scenario that was equivalent or greater than the Texas cold snap earlier this year that nearly collapsed the entire power grid and left millions in the dark, according to Bloomberg. 

Wes Yeomans, vice president of operations for the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), said electricity demand would soar to record highs under such a scenario. At the same time, deliveries of natural gas to power plants would be disrupted, he added. 

The disruption would cause power reserves to plummet by 90% to 526 megawatts, the model revealed. Yeomans said that NYISO had identified electrical circuits required to keep gas flowing through pipelines to prevent a grid collapse. Notice most of the fossil fuel generation is downstate. 

One of the critical failures of the Texas power grid, besides declining renewable energy power, was outages at gas wells and processing plants that led to fuel shortages at power plants and ultimately left millions of Texans in the dark for nearly a week in February.

Modeling has helped NYISO better prepare its grid and protect customers against periods of colder weather that could boost demand for energy and strain grid operations. The grid operator doesn’t want to repeat what happened in Texas earlier this year.

NYISO’s modeling and grid preparations come as a ‘double-dip La Niña‘ has formed. So what does this mean for the Northeast’s climate this winter?

Explaining more on the subject is Bob Larson, expert senior meteorologist for Accuweather, recently told Daily Mail, “the snowfall forecast for New York City is, on average, 29.8 inches, but our predictions up to 32 inches.” 

So it comes as no surprise that NYISO is preparing for what could be a brutal winter.