American power providers are facing supply shortages that stem from increased pressure on the grid due to record-high temperatures, as people boost the use of air conditioning, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
According to Refinitiv data, the weather in the US has already been some 21% warmer than the 30-year average.
“Federal agencies responsible for power reliability, like the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), have warned that grids in the western half of the country could face reliability issues this summer as consumers crank up air conditioners to escape the heat,” the report states.
Power companies are worried they will not be able to find the spare parts to fix equipment fast enough to avoid outages, with some of them already reporting problems due to the heat. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), for instance, had to ask customers to cut back on energy use and turn up the temperature on air conditioners after six power plants went offline during a heat wave in mid-May.