Blackouts

Electric Utilities Prepare for Storms, Why Not Wide Area Blackouts?

When Hurricane Idalia was making its way towards Florida, electric utilities there prepared for the worst. However, electric utilities...

NERC PRC-010-2 – Undervoltage Load Shedding: Concerns and Improvements

In the latest installment of this series on NERC’s Reliability Standards, I focus on PRC-010-2 – Undervoltage Load Shedding. It is vital...

3 Solutions to Prevent Rolling Blackouts in California

Yesterday, much of California faced level-3 energy emergency alerts as the lingering heat wave led residents to increase their electric...

What Triggers a Wide Area Blackout?

In our last post What is a Wide Area Blackout?, we defined a wide area blackout as an incident in which part of the electric power...

What is a Wide Area Blackout?

Whether caused by an attack on power grid infrastructure, a design deficiency, or human error, wide area blackouts are a threat to...

Learn from Texas Energy Crisis: Restructure Electric Billing Practices

In recent years some energy providers, including those in Texas, have begun offering market-based billing options. Market-based billing...

Rolling Blackouts are Not the Solution for Grid Deficiencies

Rotating outages (a.k.a. rolling blackouts) were once the last resort during a power crisis. But in recent years, they are becoming more...

Update the Grid to Prevent Future Blackouts in Texas

As of yesterday, February 17, 2021, around 4 million residents in Texas faced winter storm conditions and extremely cold temperatures...