NERC: New Strategies Needed for Growing Gas Reliance

Yesterday, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. released recommendations regarding the US’s increasing dependence on natural gas. The report made it clear that greater coordination was required between the electric and gas sector. It also laid out its predictions as to what the consequences of a disruption along the natural gas supply line would be.
The NERC’s report targeted regulators and pushed for them to do more to make the current system more resilient to gas supply disruptions and to help diversify it. It included a number of steps indicating how regulators were expected to do this. It is crucial that the industry is able to take severe disruptions in its stride in order to stop them from snowballing into much more serious issues.
John Moura, the director of Reliability Assessment and System Analysis, explained that “the operating realities of renewables and other intermittent generation resources, when combined with ongoing coal and nuclear retirements, create a greater dependence on natural-gas fired generation.” As this reliance on natural gas rises, it becomes more and more essential that there are safeguards in place in case of a loss of gas facilities.
The report also makes suggestions about fuel supply – a particularly hot topic in the USA right now. The recommendation is that a greater emphasis is placed on the transmission of gas in order to make sure the grid is stable. This comes in the wake of suggestions from the Department of Energy that coal and nuclear generation facilities are rewarded for the fuel they hold onsite. The report recommends that the DOE collect information and data in order to generate an idea of how much energy is stored.
In conclusion, the NERC said that those who are in charge of planning the system should be working in tandem with regulators to incorporate "expeditious consideration" of air permit waivers. It is believed that these could be required for the purposes of increased resilience. Thomas Coleman, NERC director of reliability assessments claims that extensive and comprehensive planning will work positively to greatly increase the resilience of the grid.
Although the report lauds the natural gas industry’s level of reliability, it notes that recent gas leaks and other similar events "raised awareness of the [bulk power system's] dependency on natural gas infrastructure and calls for a closer look at the facilities that support fuel deliveries to electric generation."
Yet, we have been assured by those in the know that the gas industry is still highly reliable and that disaster scenario planning, while useful, should be done with careful consideration. The importance was stressed by Dena Wiggins, president and CEO of NGSA, of seriously determining the likelihood that any of the events will happen for which resolutions are being planned.
She concluded by saying that "there are many mitigation strategies that can be successfully employed to reduce the potential impacts of a natural gas disruption." 



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