Strengthening the transmission and distribution grid, increasing distributed generation and even trimming vegetation would likely do more to improve grid resilience than a proposed draft order from the Trump administration that would force system operators to keep coal and nuclear plants operating for at least two years.
“Fuel supply is not the issue,” says Rob Gramlich, an energy economist and principal at Grid Strategies LLC, which released a study highlighting some steps for power system resilience in May. Among the measures suggested were system design, grid modernization and fleet diversity. “Keeping old inflexible power plants on line in an environment with large reserve margins will not help resilience.”