Extreme winter weather has revealed the flaws of energy strategies that overly rely on gas. A year ago, I wrote about how Mid-Atlantic fossil fuel power plant owners’ bad practices cost consumers money by reducing power plant capabilities that should be available in cold weather.
The gas industry’s widespread inattention to winter reliability must be addressed, and one way to fix it is for gas-burning power plants to take a closer look at their performance in colder weather.how cooler air allows gas-fired power plants to generate more electricity than the plant can generate in hot weather, because cooler air is heavier and able to absorb more heat.
An analysis I conducted after the last February’s energy crisis in Texas found gas-fired plants suppressing their own capabilities in cooler weather in at least 27 states. Plant owners’ decision to report to grid operators no added capability or flexibility from their generators ignores good utility practice.
Grid operators in New York and New England are getting this colder-weather contribution from 90 percent of the newer gas-burning power plants, what wonks would call natural gas combined-cycle units. These gas power plants have requested and received permission to operate at higher winter ratings than summer ratings.
In the three other regions of the eastern United States, most of the newer gas power plants have told grid operators that they will not produce more power in any weather than what they can produce at 90 degrees F. The connection requests and resulting plans for the operating gas power plants in the Southwest Power Pool show 33 percent in that 14-state region are providing higher output in cooler weather.