Will the president pursue grid reliability? – Watt?

From cfact

David Wojick

The president argues for new control over so-called independent federal agencies in the Executive Order (EO). About 100 of them have huge regulatory authority.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is particularly interesting. The main task of FERC is to maintain the reliability of the U.S. power grid. The task obviously failed because the mesh became unreliable.

The question is, will the president use his power to lead the FERC to restore reliability? He might do several ways, briefly discussed below.

But first, there is a deeper question to be kept in mind, which is the doubtful constitutional legitimacy of these institutions. What are they independent of? The Constitution only stipulates three branches of government for Congress, justice and enforcement.

The claim that these institutions are somehow independent of these branches suggests that it may be the fourth branch that is unconstitutional. In fact, Judge Scalia said they were unconstitutional and we now have a conservative Supreme Court. Therefore, anyone who wants to prosecute the president should be careful what they want.

The question back to the FERC is whether the president will let them take the steps needed to restore grid reliability. I've written two ways that might work before.

The first one is very simple, as FERC announces only connections to grids for those connected by large generators that are unpredictable by design. In systemic intermittentity, the increase in the proportion of grid-connected generators is the main factor in the loss of reliability. See here: https://www.cfact.org/2025/02/02/17/a-simple-way-way-to-to-save-to-save-the-rid-from-more-wind-ind-and-solar//

A more detailed approach is to activate FERC's reliability regulation system in a new way. The system failed to date, but maybe it could make it work.

The central figure in the reliability system is North American Electricity Reliability Corporation (NERC), which consists of eight regional reliability entities covering the interconnected power areas of the United States, Canada and Mexico. Other key figures are independent system operators and regional transmission operators as well as numerous power companies.

NERC has been authorized under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the FERC rules to maintain and improve the reliability of the grid by issuing standards and procedures that grid users must follow. Apparently, NERC failed to pass the statutory task because grid reliability has been reduced to dangerous levels.

I analyzed NERCs a while ago and although they have about 100 reliability standards and procedures, there is nothing to prevent intermittent reduction in reliability. Such standards are urgently needed to restore reliability.

See my “Constraint Renewable Energy Is a National Demand”:

http://www.cfact.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/wojickreport.pdf

So one way is to simply stop connecting the new intermittent generator to the grid. Another one that might be more refined, or may be applicable to existing generators, is that NERC has set new standards to limit the impact of intermittentity.

Both ways to restore reliability require FERC's orders, which the president may incentivize under the new executive order. The president appointed the FERC chairperson of the post on the first day was very vocal about the dangerous decline in grid reliability. Together, they may just put the United States on the road to restoring reliability.

If the president wants to fix the grid, he can start using it. Please stay tuned for CFACT.

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