As President of The Hedley Company, a firm dedicated to energy communications and research, I have closely monitored the U.S. power grid's performance through countless weather events, policy shifts, and market dynamics. The events of late January 2026, during Winter Storm Fern, provided one of the clearest recent demonstrations of why the nation's remaining coal-fired baseload fleet remains vital to grid reliability. This prolonged Arctic blast, characterized by extreme cold, heavy ice accumulation, and widespread freezing temperatures across much of the eastern and central United States, pushed demand to near-record levels in several regions while exposing vulnerabilities in fuel supply and variable generation. Coal plants stepped up dramatically, surging generation to fill critical gaps.
Without this dispatchable, weather-resilient baseload capacity, the grid would likely have faced far greater risks of widespread power outages, energy shortages, and mandatory demand response measures—precisely the scenarios warned about in the North American Electric Reliability Corporation's (NERC) 2025-2026 Winter Reliability Assessment (WRA).
Winter Storm Fern struck in the final week of January 2026, blanketing large swaths of the country in snow and ice. The storm's impacts were severe: peak customer outages exceeded 1 million, primarily from distribution-level damage to aging poles and wires under ice loads. In regions like PJM, demand approached or neared historical winter highs (forecasts up to 141-148 GW), while real-time wholesale prices spiked dramatically in constrained zones, with some exceeding $1,800/MWh. Yet, unlike the catastrophic failures of Winter Storm Uri in 2021, the bulk power system avoided rolling blackouts, Energy Emergency Alerts (EEAs) in most areas, or widespread load shedding. ERCOT, for instance, managed without conservation appeals, and PJM navigated over 10 days of frigid conditions without major generation shortfalls.
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