© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A PIKE Energy crew makes repairs after ice storms and freezing rain in the south of Texas left thousands without power and turned roadways into ice rinks during an extreme cold weather period in San Antonio, Texas, U.S., February 2, 2023. REU
(Reuters) – Large parts of the U.S. and Canada power grid serving around 180 million people could be left without enough electricity during extreme cold again this winter, a group that sets North American electric reliability standards said on Wednesday.
In its winter outlook, the North American Electric Reliability Corp (NERC) put the U.S. Midwest, Northeast and southern regions, along with several Canadian provinces, at the “greatest risk for electricity supply shortfalls this winter.”
NERC warned that prolonged, wide-area cold snaps threaten the reliability of bulk power generation and availability of fuel supplies for natural-gas-fired generation.
“Recent extreme cold weather events have shown that energy delivery disruptions can have devastating consequences for electric and gas consumers in impacted areas,” NERC said.
NERC, along with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), on Tuesday urged…
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