SC has lessons to learn from the 2022 Christmas power blackouts | Opinion
Alarm bells are definitely ringing about South Carolina’s electric grid, as an Oct. 21 article in The State said. But, Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative’s recent call to rush towards increased reliance on natural gas for power generation could bring huge rate volatility without delivering the expected reliability improvements.
There are better, more modern alternatives, and South Carolinians deserve to understand the implications of all the options.
Blackouts for S.C. utility customers last Christmas, unfortunately, serve as a prime example that South Carolina cannot afford to put all of our eggs in one basket with natural gas. During Christmas weekend 2022, hundreds of thousands of electric customers across North and South Carolina were left in the cold and dark.
Since the event, we’ve learned a primary cause for the blackouts is that gas-fired power plant equipment failed.
This was detailed for Duke in a report by South Carolina’s Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS) and confirmed in testimony to the Utilities Commission in North Carolina. When Duke’s power plants were most needed, 6,000 MWs of coal and gas power (nearly 20% of the entire system) was not producing power. A similar story unfolded for Santee Cooper and Dominion, whose fossil fleet underperformed by 1,500 MW. Even the new Lee Gas Plant (2018), could not be relied upon due to a fire at the plant.
While utilities promote expanding natural gas pipelines as the solution, this is not supported by the data, as the vast majority of plant failures were due to maintenance, frozen plant instruments and other technology issues. It was the same tale told by utilities across the country, and one that demonstrates that natural gas is not the beacon of reliability utilities might have us believe.
When natural gas prices spike, it becomes one of the most expensive options available, as South Carolinians have unfortunately seen firsthand in our power bills. Over the last 18 months, many S.C. electric customers saw more than 20% bill hikes due to the price of natural gas. When natural gas prices rise, so does the cost of producing power, and customers pay the price.
Utilities are not required to cover a single cent of the cost to fuel power plants — they pass 100% on to customers. Utilities profit from selling electricity but bear none of the risk when fuel costs skyrocket, so they have no qualms about building even more “gas-guzzling” power plants. With utilities promoting the buildout of natural gas mega projects, ratepayers deserve to fully understand the financial role we play in the utilities’ scheme.
Clean energy sources, including solar, are more affordable than gas-fired power plants, have zero fuel costs to pass down to ratepayers, and have repeatedly proven their ability to sustain in both heat and cold to meet customer power needs.
During the Christmas 2022 blackouts, renewables performed as expected, providing vital power without the kinds of instrumentation failures utilities saw at coal and natural gas plants. Learning from major blackouts two years ago, Texas has added thousands of megawatts of new utility-scale batteries to the grid, keeping it reliable at lower cost during record-breaking heatwaves this summer.
Charting South Carolina’s energy future is a huge undertaking. It’s something we all have a stake in, something we all pay for, and it should be embarked upon intentionally and thoughtfully. While there is no doubt that South Carolina needs to invest in new energy sources, we should heed the lessons learned about reliability from the Christmas blackouts and consider the real cost impacts natural gas has on customer bills.
There are cleaner, more reliable, and modern options available to South Carolinians — ones that will help address energy security and affordability issues. These are the options utilities and lawmakers should be pursuing.