A good line of sight in the foreseeable future of a reliable electric service, but with grid demands between homeowners, businesses, and data centers, could brown outs or black outs be a way to conserve energy? Ameren Illinois Vice President of Regulatory Policy and Energy Supply, Matt Tomc sees no anticipation of that being the case, at least for now:
“When the demand for electricity exceeds the physical supply coming onto the system, that is not a good situation. From my perspective, we are doing better this year in terms of watching those days that we are on alert for that type of thing, so that is a good sign. I don’t anticipate any reliability issues in the near future, but I want to say this, when we see these market prices go up, that is indicating something. It is indicating that there are economic circumstances that are essentially reflecting scarcity. As that price goes up because of the supply and demand mismatch, that is giving us a warning sign that we need to do something. So, it is not just about price. The cost and the affordability of electricity is important, but also ensuring we have ongoing supply is critically important.”
Tomc says that if it ever came to a situation where the demand greatly exceeded the supply of the electrical grid, Ameren Illinois would start voluntarily asking larger uses to temporarily reduce their usage.
