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New York Aims to Avoid Texas’s Mistakes as It Preps Grid for Winter

New York Aims to Avoid Texas’s Mistakes as It Preps Grid for Winter

New York’s grid operator wants to make sure it doesn’t make the same mistakes Texas did last winter after a rare storm left millions in the dark. 

The New York grid modeled its ability to keep the lights on if slammed by a cold snap that only happens once every hundred years. In such a scenario, electricity demand would soar to an all-time high while deliveries of natural gas to generators would be disrupted, said Wes Yeomans, vice president of operations for the New York Independent System Operator.  

Under those circumstances, power reserves could plunge by more than 90% to 526 megawatts, the modeling showed. To prevent generators from being cut off from fuel supplies, NYISO identified critical electrical circuits required to keep gas flowing through pipelines, Yeomans aid during a media briefing on Tuesday.

Power outages at gas wells and processing plants contributed to the cascade of energy-infrastructure failures that blacked out millions of Texans and paralyzed the state for the better part of week during the February freeze.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.