| Almost a year after Winter Storm Elliott’s freezing temperatures set off an electric grid emergency along the East Coast, energy regulators still aren’t sure something similar wouldn’t happen again. The North American Electric Reliability Corp. and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released a report outlining several steps to prevent further crises. But the organizations — which monitor and regulate the grid — say there are still many unknowns about what went wrong during Elliott, writes Miranda Willson. As climate change causes more frequent and severe extreme weather, the work needed to stay ahead of future storms hasn’t yet met the urgency. Additionally, the transition to clean energy and electric vehicles will increase demand for the electric system, raising new reliability concerns, NERC warned this week. One major challenge for NERC and FERC for years is that neither oversees the nation's vast natural gas pipeline network nor the connection between natural gas and the electric grid. But the only way to expand oversight is through Congress. Energy analysts say the storm highlights a broken system and is a call for government action. “Everything in this report says we’ve got a problem in our gas system, but none of us seem to have any authority over it,” said Mike Jacobs, a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Unpacking the pipeline puzzle Elliott also highlighted vulnerabilities in natural gas, a fuel that has overtaken coal as the largest source of electric power in the past decade, during extreme cold conditions. The storm caused serious issues at natural gas plants as reserves dramatically dropped and pipelines that transport and process gas suffered mechanical problems. “I think post-Elliott, people are like, ‘Wow, gas maybe isn’t reliable and dispatchable, and gas wasn’t there when we needed it,’” said Ric O’Connell, executive director of the GridLab, which studies how to incorporate renewable energy onto the grid. One key recommendation from NERC and FERC was to study if the existing gas pipeline infrastructure is adequate, a move gas utilities and factions of the power industry have supported. Some in the gas industry maintain that pipelines and natural gas have a strong track record of delivery despite extreme weather. To address the concerns, companies have called for more gas infrastructure to ease delivery issues and cited frozen drilling equipment and wellhead freeze-offs as key problems during Elliott — a call certain to conflict with climate activists who oppose any fossil fuel expansion.
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