Transmission reform alone will not solve the U.S. electric grid’s ongoing reliability issues, with more power generation needed to meet rising demand, according to the CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corp.
Even if enough transmission was developed to dramatically increase the capacity to transfer power across electricity-constrained regions, “we are still short generation,” Jim Robb, CEO of the nation’s grid reliability authority, told regulators at a FERC-led conference on reliability Wednesday.
“There are parts of the country that you cannot solve,” Robb said. “So at the end of the day, while a lot of people would like to say we can solve this problem through transmission, we can solve this problem through batteries … we need generation in this country.”
Robb’s comment comes as the U.S. grid is facing a rapid acceleration in power demand while old fossil fuel plants are being priced offline and the system is struggling to add new replacement resources.