Adding wind, solar to electric grid could strain it; co-ops may clash with preservationists over lines

"The North American Electric Reliability Corporation says that unless appropriate measures are taken to improve transmission of electricity, rules reducing carbon dioxide emissions by utilities could impair the reliability of the power grid," writes Matthew L. Wald of The New York Times. This could have significant ramifications for renewable energy initiatives throughout the U.S. because NERC has "legal authority to enforce reliability standards with all U.S. users, owners, and operators of the bulk power system, and make compliance with those standards mandatory and enforceable," according to its Web site.

Regulations limiting carbon dioxide emissions, now in place in 27 states and four Canadian provinces, are likely to be made national. That could lead to shutdown of coal-fired plants closer to consumers, and sources of wind and solar energy tend to be far from most electric consumers. The NERC report also points out that "the carbon emission rules could increase reliance on natural gas, making power generation vulnerable to supply interruptions," writes Weiss. "These actions would impose new demands on a transmission system that was never designed for large power transfers over extremely long distances."

"It appears that greenhouse gas issues and electric utility reliability are on a collision course," Kenneth Farmer, executive director of Beauregard Electric Cooperative in southwest Louisiana, says in the report. Rural electric cooperatives are much more dependent on coal than other utilities, getting 80 percent of their energy by burning coal to drive steam turbines. Among all U.S. utilities, coal is the source for about 50 percent of electricity.

Building new power lines designed to carry electricity over long distances could be complicated by "the growing strength of preservationists trying to protect rural areas," Weiss writes, and "Under some conditions — a spike in demand because of severe weather, or the lengthy shutdown of a nuclear plant — the only way to obtain more power could be to burn more coal," putting utilities at odds with agreements they have signed to cut carbon emissions. "It is not clear how such conflicts would be resolved." (Read more)