Hundreds of millions of Americans risk experiencing power shortages this winter if weather conditions are harsh, according to a new report published by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a power grid watchdog.
Nearly all residents of the Northeast, Texas and Midwest could face energy shortfalls in the event of a colder-than-usual winter, the NERC report states. The lack of grid reliability is driven largely by growing electricity demand as well as the replacement of coal-fired and older natural gas-fired generators with energy-limited resources such as solar power.