Blackouts are among the worst things that can happen to electric utilities, particularly when customers are freezing in the dark for long periods. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recently observed, “Any blackout imposes profound effects upon industry, business, community, and life, which would be compounded during an extreme cold weather event.” Getting generating units back in service soon should be a utility priority, in lingo: “blackstart.”
A FERC press release noted, “In contrast to most large generating plants, which need electricity to start up, a blackstart resource is designed to start up without support from the grid. These resources are critical to restoring electric service in event of a total blackout.”
In 2021 in Texas, during Winter Storm Uri, blackstart was a major problem, with some 200 deaths. The state’s enormous natural gas industry and its critical electric utility system failed to cooperate and coordinate during a massive blackout, exacerbating the economic and personal impacts of utility failures.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff addressed blackstart coordination between gas and electric systems during Uri in a 55-page study released at the commission’s final 2023 meeting Tuesday (Dec. 19). At a press conference following the meeting, FERC Chairman Willie Phillips said the recommendations can also inform energy systems outside the state-wide transmission system. FERC is doing a similar analysis for the massive PJM electric system in the East and Mid-Atlantic states.
The FERC study “identified instances where blackstart resources were rendered unavailable during the event.” Among the problems FERC identified:
- Fuel resources, as “the fuel mix of the blackstart resources available to the ISO has limited fuel diversity and the ISO relies heavily on natural gas as fuel for its blackstart and next-start resources.”
- Training, where the study “found that participants who perform additional testing of blackstart resources and restoration training use the knowledge gained from these activities to modify, update, and improve their blackstart system restoration plans.”
- Co-dependency as “the electric and natural gas industries are heavily reliant on one another to maintain reliable operations.”
Overall, the joint study among FERC, the National Electric Reliability Corp., and Texas overserved that “having open lines of communication in place between the two industries in preparation for a blackstart system restoration scenario is necessary to facilitate timely restoration of the electric grid.”
In other action on Tuesday, FERC approved a $1.2 billion settlement between PJM and 15 parties on penalties PJM proposed for poor performance by electric generators, driven by failures of the region’s natural gas industry during Winter Storm Elliott over last year’s holiday season. PJM originally proposed $1.8 billion in fines for gas industry failures at the wellhead, in the pipelines, and at generating stations. Blackstart problems during the Elliott as it ravaged the entire Eastern Interconnection also highlighted problems in PJM’s capacity market, which the regional transmission operator is working to reform.
The meeting was the last for controversial and sometimes acerbic commissioner James Danly, whose term in office expired at the end of June but was extended to the rest of 2023. Danly, a Republican on the five-member commission, was the agency’s general counsel before being elevated to the commission itself by President Trump in 2020. He served briefly as FERC chairman from November 5, 2020 to January 21, 2021, when the Biden administration came into office. Under the law, the FERC chairman is appointed by the president. When FERC has a full contingent of commissioners, three are from the political party in control of the White House and two are members of the minority.
Danly’s departure leaves FERC with only three commissioners: Chairman Willie Phillips, a Biden Democratic appointee sworn into office Dec. 3, 2021; Commissioner Allison Clements, a Democrat who was sworn in on Dec. 8, 2020; and Mark Christie, a Republican who took office Jan. 4, 2021.
Tuesday also marked the last meeting for Kimberly Bose, FERC’s long-serving secretary, with the job of managing the agency’s dockets, filings, and general document control. She has served at FERC for 37 years and was named secretary, among the agency’s top staff positions, in 2007. Before becoming FERC secretary, Bose, a lawyer, was a managing attorney in the general counsel’s office, where she provided legal advice on electric rate regulation.
–Kennedy Maize