Reps. McNerney, Casten, and Levin introduce bills to enhance grid reliability

U.S. Reps. Jerry McNerney (D-CA), Sean Casten (D-IL), and Mike Levin (D-CA) introduced bills that seek to improve the reliability of the electric power grid.

One of their bills is the Grid Resilience Act (H.R. 8311), which would require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to conduct a joint study on a reliability standard for thermoelectric power plants during droughts.

The proposed legislation follows the release of NERC’s 2022 Summer Reliability Assessment, which found that drought conditions have heightened reliability risks in the summer. Further, power plants that use rivers for cooling are impacted by low river levels, causing a potential reduction in output which can lead to energy shortfalls during peak demand.

“Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, causing additional strain on our electric grid,” McNerney said. “We know that unreliable power systems not only upend Americans’ daily lives but can turn into a life-or-death situation. These bills focus on forward-looking approaches to weatherproof our electric grid and reduce potential periods of power disruption.”

Their other bill is the Reinforcing the Grid Against Extreme Weather Act (H.R. 8303), requiring FERC to establish minimum transfer capability requirements between transmission planning regions. This would improve reliability as planning regions would be able to share power in the case of a power emergency. As extreme weather events increase and pose reliability risks, this legislation seeks to ensure affordable and dependable energy.

“With wildfires, flooding, and heat waves ravaging the country, we have an obligation to increase the reliability of our electric grid and protect Americans against these devastating events fueled by the climate crisis,” Casten said. “Aimed at providing FERC with the ability to deliver cleaner, cheaper, more reliable energy to families across the United States, these bills help unlock the vast supply of domestic U.S. clean energy resources to fuel our transportation as well as power needs, free up energy for allies around the world to use and help rid them from dependence on Russia and other petrostates.”