Many in our state are probably too busy dealing with the effects of the latest “atmospheric river” to think about how winter will soon bring its own weather challenges.
State lawmakers need to be thinking about it, however. A stretch of sub-freezing temperatures could leave our region’s energy grid struggling to handle the soaring demand for electricity, especially if it’s a cold spell like we had in mid-January 2024.
That brought a near-blackout — what the power industry calls a “near reliability event” — over several days while temperatures dropped as low as 16 degrees in Seattle and 12 in Portland…