During the past seven months, Hawaiian Electric has asked its Big Island customers nine times sometimes for several days in a row to reduce their electricity consumption during peak use hours in the evening, and the cause of the power problems was not the usual culprit: severe weather.
Utilities and grid operators across the country were forced into overdrive over the holiday weekend as a fierce winter storm pounded various regions and sent power demand soaring to new levels.
Changes to Texas’ power grid have improved ERCOT’s ability to keep power flowing during major winter storms, but in an extreme scenario, the grid could still face rolling blackouts, a seasonal assessment shows.