NERC Summer Electrical Reliability Assessment issued on May 19
NERC issued their Summer Reliability Assessment today for the North American grid - https://www.nerc.com/globalassets/our-work/assessments/nerc_sra_2026.pdf
Surprisingly, this is the most positive summer report in the last five years.
The main risk concentrations endure from year to year:
The WECC-Northwest faces risk as coming summer brings challenging hydrological conditions for regions in which hydropower makes up half or more of the supply fleet. Almost the entire Western Interconnection is in the grips of a persistent drought or in an area where drought development has a greater likelihood through the end of July.
The New England area continues to barely have the theoretical 14% over maximum load that NERC considers as a necessary safety cushion. In reality, the New England grid appears to be under-resourced and dependent on antiquated oil and wood-burning electrical generation assets.
This all comes on the same day the Mid-Atlantic-focused PJM is teetering meeting the mid-May electric demand. They've hit $1500 megawatt hour this afternoon trying to meet the electrical demand as unusual high temperatures impact the region.
