The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation and NERC’s Regional Entities said on April 17 that the country’s bulk power system performed well during successive cold weather events in January 2025, without major issues in either the natural gas or electric systems.
The performance of the system, according to the joint report, demonstrates the benefits of actions taken in response to prior winter storm reports’ recommendations and the need for continued coordination between natural gas and electric systems in preparing for and responding to extreme cold weather.
“Today’s report shows just how important these types of reviews can be,” FERC Chairman Mark Christie said. “Clearly, we have learned important lessons from earlier catastrophic outages such as those that took place during Winter Storm Uri, and grid operators and gas pipelines acted on those lessons. As a result, consumers benefitted by better system performance in subsequent extreme cold events.”
The joint review found that communication and coordination were improved ahead of these winter storms. Specifically, system operators made additional generator commitments and had increased situational awareness, which showed their implementation of lessons learned from previous extreme cold weather events and prior report recommendations. Generators were also more prepared for the extreme weather.
The natural gas system performed better overall, serving record levels of natural gas demand, and experiencing only minor production declines.
“It’s great to see both electric and gas industries find ways to lean into extreme events like we saw with these winter storms,” said Jim Robb, NERC’s President and CEO. “As these kinds of events become more frequent, it's important to codify what works and include that information into performance expectations for both sectors.”
The report points out that, while progress has been made, the natural gas and electric systems should continue to implement the recommendations and observed practices from Winter Storms Uri and Elliott reports, a December 2023 blackstart report, and the Winter Storms Gerri and Heather review.
