To Jim's question, below is a recent email/blogpost from me.
Half of the plants that were offline during the polar vortex were actually coal plants. FERC is holding a technical conference on April 1st on the topic and we'll have someone there.
It sounds like there have been a lot of questions about the polar vortex and
potential reliability problems with coal plants retiring. Senator Murkowski and others have been calling for Senate hearings, and its a major talking point in utility circles right now. To try and dispel some of these myths there is some helpful information
below.
Many of the reliability issues during cold snaps are actually caused by coal plants tripping offline. From equipment to coal piles freezing, the 2011 blackouts in Texas and this January's blackout
in South Carolina were caused by coal plants unable to operate in cold weather. Coal plants are intermittent, clean energy is variable. Wind and solar variations can be forecast and accounted for, not so for coal and nuclear plants when they shut down abruptly.
The other major problem in some regions is gas plants unable to actually get gas because its being used for heating. One solution there is simple: reduce the amount of gas needed. Whatever the problem is for a particular region, the solutions - including
those that worked most effectively in the Mid-Atlantic - are actually more energy efficiency, demand response, wind, and solar, not keeping clunker coal plants around. I wrote a blog about this for the Sustainable FERC Project two weeks ago, you can read
it here:
http://sustainableferc.org/polar-vortex-shows-we-need-more-efficiency-wind-and-solar-not-coal-or-gas/.
We'll try to share some additional information about this topic as it develops, but its actually pretty much the only thing our colleagues at the FERC Project have written about for the last month,
so check out the other two blog entries on that site.