January’s Winter Storm Fern was ‘classic near-miss’ for US grid, says NERC’s Robb

The U.S. grid withstood Winter Storm Fern in January without disruption to the bulk power system, but the electric sector cannot become complacent because reliability risks are rising, Jim Robb, president and CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corp., told a House subcommittee on Tuesday.

Fern was a wide-area, multi-day, extreme weather event that left about 1 million people across the Midwest, Northeast and South without power — but largely due to local outages, such as from downed power lines. While ultimately there were sufficient energy resources available on the grid, Robb called the storm a “classic near-miss” that required extraordinary measures.

As demand forecasts for Winter Storm Fern surged, the electric sector activated emergency operating procedures to manage the reliability risk and the U.S. Department of Energy stepped in with emergency orders, Robb said. Gas, coal and nuclear resources provided most of the generation through the storm, but renewables also contributed, he said. Fuel oil and liquefied natural gas helped keep the lights on in New England.

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