FERC and North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) have recommended that electric and natural gas industries need to strengthen their winterization and cold weather preparedness and coordination to prevent a recurrence of the power outages during the February 2021 freeze in Texas and the Midwest.
The jointly issued report makes several key recommendations, including:
- Revisions to require generator owners to identify and protect cold weather-critical components.
- Build new or retrofit existing units to operate to specific ambient temperatures and weather based on extreme temperature and weather data.
- Take into account effects of wind and precipitation in winterization plans.
- Corrective action plans for generator owners that experience freeze-related outages.
- Ensure the system operator is aware of the operating limitations in the generating fleet so they can plan mitigation actions.
The identified causes in the preliminary report affected generating units across all fuel types. Of the 1,045 generating units affected, 57 percent were natural gas-fired units that primarily faced fuel-supply challenges.
For more information, visit www.ferc.gov or call (866) 208-3676.
