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Day: November 8, 2023
More than half of the U.S. and parts of Canada, home to around 180 million people, could fall short of electricity during extreme cold again this winter because of a lack of natural gas infrastructure, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. said Wednesday.
In its 2023-24 winter outlook, the regulatory authority warned that prolonged, wide-area cold snaps threaten the reliability of bulk power generation and availability of fuel supplies for natural gas-fired generation.
“Recent extreme cold weather events have shown that energy delivery disruptions can have devastating consequences for electric and gas consumers in impacted areas,” NERC said.
NERC put the U.S. Midwest, Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and South, along with some Canadian provinces, at the highest risk for electricity supply shortages this winter.
Grid operators like Midcontinent, PJM Interconnection, SERC Reliability Corp. and Texas’ ERCOT are vulnerable to generators going offline under extreme cold conditions, NERC said, adding that cold weather could also choke off gas pipelines in New England, which has limited gas infrastructure.
“There is not enough natural gas pipeline and infrastructure to serve all the gas generation in certain big areas,” John Moura, NERC’s director for reliability assessment and performance analysis, said during a media briefing.
NERC also found that load forecasting in winter is growing in complexity, and underestimating demand is a risk to reliability in extreme cold temperatures.
NERC, along with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, on Tuesday urged lawmakers to fill a regulatory blind spot to maintain a reliable supply of gas during extreme cold. The problem was highlighted by an inquiry into power outages during Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022.
During Elliott, both electric and gas systems in much of the eastern half of the U.S. experienced significant stress, resulting in unplanned generation losses, with around 90,500 megawatts out at the same time, the inquiry found.
Flows of gas into pipelines were reduced during Elliott, while demand for the fuel for heating and power generation increased, dramatically lowering line pressures. That gas system only narrowly avoided significant outages.
In New York City, Consolidated Edison declared an emergency because it faced a possible system collapse.
The SAG-AFTRA actors’ union reached a tentative agreement with Hollywood studios to resolve the second of two strikes that rocked the entertainment industry as workers demanded higher pay in the streaming TV era, the union said Wednesday.
The 118-day strike will end officially just after midnight, SAG-AFTRA said in a statement. The group’s national board will consider the deal on Friday, and the union said it would release further details after that meeting.
Members of SAG-AFTRA walked off the job in mid-July asking for an increase in minimum salaries, a share of streaming service revenue and protection from being replaced by “digital replicas” generated by artificial intelligence (AI).
The union said negotiators had reached a preliminary deal on a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents Walt Disney DIS.N, Netflix NFLX.O and other media companies.
An AMPTP representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The breakthrough means Hollywood can ramp up to full production for the first time since May, once union members vote to ratify the deal in the coming weeks.
“I’m relieved,” actor Fanny Grande said in an interview. “It’s been really difficult for most people in the industry, especially people of color. As it is, we don’t have as many opportunities. We aren’t big celebrities that have money in the bank for months. I just really hope that it’s a fair deal.”
Actors had similar concerns to film and television writers, who argued that compensation for working-class cast members had dwindled as streaming took hold, making it hard to earn a living wage in cities such as Los Angeles and New York. TV series on streaming did not offer the same residual payments that actors enjoyed during the heyday of broadcast TV.
Performers also became alarmed by recent advances in artificial intelligence, which they feared could lead to studios manipulating their likenesses without permission or replacing human actors with digital images.
George Clooney and other A-list stars voiced solidarity with lower-level actors and had urged union leadership, including SAG-AFTRA President and The Nanny actor Fran Drescher, to reach a resolution.
Many film and TV sets shut down when the Writers Guild of America (WGA) called a strike in the spring. While WGA members returned to writing scripts in late September, the ongoing SAG-AFTRA work stoppage left many productions dark.
The disruptions cost California more than $6 billion in lost output, according to a Milken Institute estimate.
With little work available, many prop masters, costume designers and other crew members struggled to make ends meet. FilmLA, the group that approves filming permits, reported scripted production during the week of Oct. 29 had fallen 77% from the same time a year earlier.
The Hollywood strikes came during a year of other high-profile job actions. The United Auto Workers recently ended six weeks of walkouts at Detroit carmakers. Teachers, nurses and healthcare workers also walked off the job.
Hollywood’s work stoppages forced broadcast networks to fill their fall lineups with re-runs, games shows and reality shows. It also led movie studios to delay big releases such as Dune: Part 2 because striking actors could not promote them.
Other major films, including the latest installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise and Disney’s live-action remake of animated classic Snow White, were postponed until 2025.
More than half of the U.S. and parts of Canada, home to around 180 million people, could fall short of electricity during extreme cold again this winter because of a lack of natural gas infrastructure, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. said Wednesday.
In its 2023-24 winter outlook, the regulatory authority warned that prolonged, wide-area cold snaps threaten the reliability of bulk power generation and availability of fuel supplies for natural gas-fired generation.
“Recent extreme cold weather events have shown that energy delivery disruptions can have devastating consequences for electric and gas consumers in impacted areas,” NERC said.
NERC put the U.S. Midwest, Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and South, along with some Canadian provinces, at the highest risk for electricity supply shortages this winter.
Grid operators like Midcontinent, PJM Interconnection, SERC Reliability Corp. and Texas’ ERCOT are vulnerable to generators going offline under extreme cold conditions, NERC said, adding that cold weather could also choke off gas pipelines in New England, which has limited gas infrastructure.
“There is not enough natural gas pipeline and infrastructure to serve all the gas generation in certain big areas,” John Moura, NERC’s director for reliability assessment and performance analysis, said during a media briefing.
NERC also found that load forecasting in winter is growing in complexity, and underestimating demand is a risk to reliability in extreme cold temperatures.
NERC, along with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, on Tuesday urged lawmakers to fill a regulatory blind spot to maintain a reliable supply of gas during extreme cold. The problem was highlighted by an inquiry into power outages during Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022.
During Elliott, both electric and gas systems in much of the eastern half of the U.S. experienced significant stress, resulting in unplanned generation losses, with around 90,500 megawatts out at the same time, the inquiry found.
Flows of gas into pipelines were reduced during Elliott, while demand for the fuel for heating and power generation increased, dramatically lowering line pressures. That gas system only narrowly avoided significant outages.
In New York City, Consolidated Edison declared an emergency because it faced a possible system collapse.
The SAG-AFTRA actors’ union reached a tentative agreement with Hollywood studios to resolve the second of two strikes that rocked the entertainment industry as workers demanded higher pay in the streaming TV era, the union said Wednesday.
The 118-day strike will end officially just after midnight, SAG-AFTRA said in a statement. The group’s national board will consider the deal on Friday, and the union said it would release further details after that meeting.
Members of SAG-AFTRA walked off the job in mid-July asking for an increase in minimum salaries, a share of streaming service revenue and protection from being replaced by “digital replicas” generated by artificial intelligence (AI).
The union said negotiators had reached a preliminary deal on a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents Walt Disney DIS.N, Netflix NFLX.O and other media companies.
An AMPTP representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The breakthrough means Hollywood can ramp up to full production for the first time since May, once union members vote to ratify the deal in the coming weeks.
“I’m relieved,” actor Fanny Grande said in an interview. “It’s been really difficult for most people in the industry, especially people of color. As it is, we don’t have as many opportunities. We aren’t big celebrities that have money in the bank for months. I just really hope that it’s a fair deal.”
Actors had similar concerns to film and television writers, who argued that compensation for working-class cast members had dwindled as streaming took hold, making it hard to earn a living wage in cities such as Los Angeles and New York. TV series on streaming did not offer the same residual payments that actors enjoyed during the heyday of broadcast TV.
Performers also became alarmed by recent advances in artificial intelligence, which they feared could lead to studios manipulating their likenesses without permission or replacing human actors with digital images.
George Clooney and other A-list stars voiced solidarity with lower-level actors and had urged union leadership, including SAG-AFTRA President and The Nanny actor Fran Drescher, to reach a resolution.
Many film and TV sets shut down when the Writers Guild of America (WGA) called a strike in the spring. While WGA members returned to writing scripts in late September, the ongoing SAG-AFTRA work stoppage left many productions dark.
The disruptions cost California more than $6 billion in lost output, according to a Milken Institute estimate.
With little work available, many prop masters, costume designers and other crew members struggled to make ends meet. FilmLA, the group that approves filming permits, reported scripted production during the week of Oct. 29 had fallen 77% from the same time a year earlier.
The Hollywood strikes came during a year of other high-profile job actions. The United Auto Workers recently ended six weeks of walkouts at Detroit carmakers. Teachers, nurses and healthcare workers also walked off the job.
Hollywood’s work stoppages forced broadcast networks to fill their fall lineups with re-runs, games shows and reality shows. It also led movie studios to delay big releases such as Dune: Part 2 because striking actors could not promote them.
Other major films, including the latest installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise and Disney’s live-action remake of animated classic Snow White, were postponed until 2025.