PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 26, 2021
Energy adequacy is a critical concern. Solar, wind, hydropower, natural gas, oil, coal, nuclear – regardless of type of resource – if a power plant doesn’t have access to the particular source of energy needed to produce electricity, it can’t operate. If this happens to too many resources at the same time, then the grid operator may have to use controlled outages to protect the system from collapsing. Climate change is affecting weather patterns, which has put external pressure on the power grid. We need to rethink our historical assumptions about energy adequacy to ensure system reliability. ~ Kathleen Q. Abernathy and Gordon van Welie, ISO New England