By David Wojick, CFACT |February 24, 2025
In an Executive Order (EO) the President is asserting a new degree of control over what are called the independent federal agencies. There are about 100 of these some of which have tremendous regulatory authority.
Of particular interest is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). A central mission of FERC is maintaining the reliability of America’s electric power grid. This mission has clearly failed as the grid has become dangerously unreliable.
The question is whether the President will use his authority to lead FERC to restore reliability? There are several ways he might do this which are discussed briefly below.
But first there is a much deeper issue that needs to be kept in mind, which is the questionable Constitutional legitimacy of these agencies. What are they independent of? The Constitution only provides for three branches of Government — Congressional, Judicial and Executive.
Claims that these agencies are somehow independent of these branches suggest a murky fourth branch which may be unconstitutional. In fact Justice Scalia said they were unconstitutional and we now have a conservative Supreme Court. So anyone thinking of suing to stop the President should be careful what they wish for.
Getting back to FERC the question is whether the President will get them to take the steps needed to restore grid reliability. I have previously written about two approaches which might work.
The first is very simple in that FERC merely declares a moratorium on connecting to the grid those large generators that are unpredictably intermittent by design. The increasing fraction of grid connected generators that are systemically intermittent is a major factor in the loss of reliability. See my “A simple way to save the grid from more wind and solar” here: https://www.cfact.org/2025/02/17/a-simple-way-to-save-the-grid-from-more-wind-and-solar/
A more elaborate approach is to activate FERC’s reliability regulation system in new ways. This system has failed to date but maybe it can be made to work.
The central figure in the reliability system is the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) which consists of eight regional reliability entities covering the interconnected power regions of the US, Canada, and Mexico. Other key figures are the Independent System Operators and Regional Transmission Operators as well as the numerous electric utilities.
NERC is authorized under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and FERC rules to maintain and improve the reliability of the grid by issuing standards and procedures that grid users must follow. Clearly NERC has failed its statutory mission as grid reliability has declined to dangerous levels.
I analyzed NERC some time ago and while they have around 100 reliability standards and procedures there is nothing whatever on preventing intermittency from degrading reliability. Such standards are desperately needed to restore reliability.
See my “Constraining Renewables is a National Need” here:
http://www.cfact.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/WOJICKREPORT.pdf
So one approach is to simply stop connecting new intermittent generators to the grid. Another which might be more refined and could also apply to existing generators is for NERC to develop new standards to constrain the impact of intermittency.
Both of these approaches to restoring reliability require orders from FERC which the President might motivate under the new Executive Order. The present Chair of FERC which the President named to that position on Day One has been very vocal regarding the dangerous decline in grid reliability. Working together they just might put America on the path to restored reliability.
If the President wants to fix the grid FERC is the place to start. Stay tuned to CFACT.
David Wojick, Ph.D. is an inDr. David Wojick is an independent policy analyst and senior advisor to CFACT. As a civil engineer with a Ph.D. in logic and analytic philosophy of science, he brings a unique perspective to complex policy issues. His specializes in science and technology intensive issues, especially in energy and environment.
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