Energy Transition Puts Grid Reliability to the Test

PJM Interconnection is in a race to shore up electric grid reliability as the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy accelerates.
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In February PJM Interconnection, the largest wholesale electricity market in the US, published a report that points to the very real possibility that electricity supply in the market could fall short of the level needed for reliable grid operation in just five years. The potential shortfall is tied to the pace of the energy transition, in which fossil fuel generators, and coal plants in particular, are retiring faster than they can be replaced by new clean and renewable generation.

The report has led to a flurry of activity in PJM, as its members rush headlong into a process to reform the way the market manages, and values the reliability that generators bring to the electricity system.

Abe Silverman, Director of the Non Technical Barriers to the Clean Energy Transition program at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, explores efforts underway in PJM to revise market rules to ensure that supply meets demand at all times, including during extreme weather events that have recently threatened the reliability of the grid. The resource adequacy challenges to be addressed are immensely complex, and extend beyond the fundamentals of energy technology to encompass the diverse economic and environmental priorities at play in the market and, more broadly, across the nation.

Abe Silverman is Director of the Non Technical Barriers to the Clean Energy Transition research and policy program at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. He is former General Counsel for the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.

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