Is PJM’s looming reliability crisis a choice instead of an inevitability? A new analysis suggests as much. (Advanced Energy United)
A report prepared for Advanced Energy United finds that maintaining the "Status Quo" (primarily gas) will result in PJM facing 1.6 days of outages per year by 2030—16X worse than the grid operator's own "1-in-10" standard.
Conversely, a so-called Advanced Policy scenario (accelerating renewables, storage, and demand response) reduces outage frequency by 97%, achieving a reliability level of just one day every 25 years.
The analysis calculates that the Advanced Policy portfolio would save the region $178B in cumulative system costs between 2025 and 2035 by reducing reliance on expensive fuel and inefficient thermal generation.