GREENSBURG, Indiana — Rhonda Jackson isn’t counting on the utility industry to keep her water pumps running at Jackson’s Nursery in Greensburg, Indiana. The company has invested more than $200,000 since 2016 to install rooftop solar panels and an emergency backup generator.
The annual NERC report identifies potential trouble spots for the grid, trying to prevent colossal failures like the near collapse of the Texas power grid in 2021, which left millions without power for days and cost hundreds of lives. The report places the entire western half of the U.S. at elevated risk of power shortages. Most of Greater Cincinnati is operated by the PJM energy market, which NERC rates at low risk of power disruptions.
“It’s likely before this would happen MISO would direct us to ask for voluntary conservation from customers, so there would be public appeals,” said Angeline Protogere, principal communication consultant for the utility serving 840,000 customers in 69 Indiana counties. “For years, we have had voluntary contracts with large power customers whereby they receive incentives from us so that during times of very high demand we could call on them to reduce their energy usage.
The power grid isn’t likely to solve its problems quickly either, said Heather Payne, a Seton Hall University Law Professor who has written research papers on the topic. And that’s why Jackson hired Lohrum Electrical LLC to update her off-the-grid resources, which started with a rooftop solar panel in 2016. Lohrum installed a second solar panel, a Generac power system and an underground pumping system that can cover her entire property if the grid goes down.
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