Bloomberg assessed weather related Texas blackouts, quoting AEE’s Jeff Dennis and TAEBA's Suzanne Bertin on the need for energy diversification and nationwide grid interconnection. Read excerpts below and the full story here (sub req), also viewable at MSN.
The icy weather that left millions without power in Texas has critics of the Biden administration’s fight against climate change blaming renewable energy, but the failures have more to do with an ill-prepared power grid and shortfalls in traditional electricity sources.
Energy analysts and experts said the blackouts in Texas underscore the U.S. electric system’s need for more of almost everything, from additional power lines criss-crossing the country to large-scale storage systems that can supply electricity when demand spikes or renewable generation declines.
That could give at least a rhetorical boost to President Joe Biden’s plans for a “historic investment” in the nation’s electric grid, including better transmission systems and battery storage that would make the system more resilient amid extreme weather...
“No technologies were spared in this storm of the century,” said Suzanne Bertin, who heads the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance. The solution involves “not putting all of our eggs in one technology basket”…
Policy makers could encourage greater use of energy storage and more high-voltage power lines to transmit electricity nationwide, said Jeff Dennis, managing director of Advanced Energy Economy, an association of clean energy businesses.
“One of the best things we can do to address a variety of challenges to the grid is build a lot more of that transmission and delivery infrastructure to move resources around from where they’re available to where they are needed,” Dennis said…