Gas Malfunction

这是该报告的浓缩在线版本. 有关报告全文及图表，请下载 full report.

The US electricity sector has made significant progress in transitioning to wind, solar, 以及其他清洁的电力来源. However, natural gas–fired power plants ("gas plants") still play a major role on the electric grid, providing 40 percent of electricity generation and accounting for 43 percent of electricity generating capacity. 对天然气工厂的过度依赖, 再加上对它们可靠性的错误假设, 电网是否存在重大漏洞. Gas plant operations are particularly susceptible to damage and disruptions during extreme weather events, 随着617888九五至尊娱乐变化，哪些正变得越来越频繁和严重. 极端天气下天然气厂的故障威胁到电网的可靠性, 在人们最需要电力的时候，它们会导致轮流停电. 在快速变化的617888九五至尊娱乐和日益频繁的天然气工厂故障中, 我们必须重新评估这种资源在确保电网可靠性方面的作用.

问题:极端天气下天然气厂的故障

天然气厂容易受到一系列极端天气事件的影响, including heat waves, cold snaps, and droughts, 最具灾难性的故障发生在冬季. Federal officials have identified five winter storms over the past decade that threatened grid reliability. In each case, gas plant failures at a scale far beyond expected levels were the primary contributor to reliability challenges (see Figure 1).

There are two main causes for gas plants being forced to reduce their generation or shut down entirely. One is when gas plants themselves fail, usually when equipment fails in freezing temperatures. Fuel supply problems, the second cause, arise when transportation and production disruptions prevent gas plants from getting enough fuel—for example, 当冰冻温度影响气井生产时.

Such issues have led to widespread gas plant failures, with rolling blackouts on numerous occasions. The most devastating instance took place in 2021 when Winter Storm Uri hit the central United States. At its worst point, the storm knocked nearly a quarter of the affected area's power plant capacity offline. 天然气厂占了损失产能的大部分. 很大程度上是由于这些发电厂的故障, 德克萨斯州的电网运营商实施了70多个小时的轮流停电. All told, more than 4.该州有500万用户断电，有些断电时间长达4天. Hypothermia caused roughly two-thirds of the 246 deaths in Texas attributed to Uri.

清洁能源可靠性解决方案

Utilities can 提高电网可靠性 by pursuing clean energy solutions on both the supply and demand sides. Supply-side solutions, such as renewables, energy storage, and transmission, 能有效提高电网可靠性吗, especially when they include a variety of geographically distributed renewable technologies. Demand-side solutions, 包括能源效率, flexible demand, 分布式能源, can reduce the need for electricity at times when the need usually increases dramatically, 比如在热浪来袭时使用空调，在寒潮来袭时使用暖气.

Pursuing clean energy solutions instead of fossil fuels reduces not only global warming emissions but also toxic air pollutants that harm public health, particularly in communities of color where gas plants are disproportionately located. Further, demand-side solutions can reduce the need for new infrastructure and diminish the land-use impacts that come with large-scale projects.

Policy Recommendations

Grid planners, regulators, and policymakers must update the US energy system with solutions that reduce reliance on gas plants, 提高电网可靠性, 减轻617888九五至尊娱乐变化的影响.

• The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) should order grid operators to consider the risks of widespread gas plant failures during extreme weather when evaluating the reliability of these resources.

• State regulators should not approve new gas plants except in the extremely limited cases when there are no viable clean energy solutions for grid reliability. Such a determination should rely on improved modeling tools that account for the impact of extreme weather on gas plant performance. 不应该在环境正义社区建造新的天然气工厂.

• FERC, grid operators, and state utility commissions should continue reducing market and regulatory barriers to clean energy resources.

• Grid operators, 以及联邦和州监管机构, 是否应向公众提供详细资料, 易于获取有关发电厂停电的信息. 这将有助于让工厂所有者负责准备, and responding to, 电网可靠性面临的威胁.

• Policymakers should increase regulatory scrutiny of the gas system to reduce the risk of failures in extreme weather—and, 万一失败发生了, 确保它们不会导致天然气厂大面积停电.