The Power Grid Just Passed Its Biggest Test in Years

On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob and Jesse announce some news about the show — and also debrief on how the Northeastern U.S. power grid performed during the past few weeks of unusually intense winter weather. They discuss why wintertime electricity demand is especially important to manage, whether it’s bad that New England got a whopping 40% of its electricity from oil, and how the region’s new transmission line to Quebec performed during the freeze. They also chat about how zero-carbon electricity could help manage grid stress.

Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap, and Jesse Jenkins, a professor of energy systems engineering at Princeton University.

You can find the full transcript of this episode here.

Mentioned:

Why winter is becoming a tough time for the power grid

New England turned to oil-burning power plants during the cold snap

Quebec stopped sending hydropower during the Arctic storm

PJM’s review of its January cold weather operations

Previously on Shift Key: The Startup Trying to Put Geothermal Heat Pumps in America’s Homes

An early review (and photos) of the Rivian R2

This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by ...

Accelerate your clean energy career with Yale’s online certificate programs. Explore the 10-month Financing and Deploying Clean Energy program or the 5-month Clean and Equitable Energy Development program. Use referral code HeatMap26 and get your application in by the priority deadline for $500 off tuition to one of Yale’s online certificate programs in clean energy. Learn more at cbey.yale.edu/online-learning-opportunities.

Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(155)

The Tesla Alum Trying to Turn GM Into an American Battery Juggernaut

There are two big trends in the American battery sector at the moment. The first is that the electric vehicle market is deteriorating. GM, for instance, sold just 25,000 EVs in the third quarter of th...

7 Okt 50min

Governor Mikie Sherrill on Electricity Prices, Nuclear Power, and Building in New Jersey

Governor Mikie Sherrill is a former Navy pilot, federal prosecutor, and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. She was elected New Jersey's governor in November 2025 in a campaign dominated by...

2 Okt 21min

Al Gore on AI, ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ and the Biggest Surprises of the Past 20 Years

Former Vice President Al Gore needs no introduction. He is, in a way, the original climate influencer. His film An Inconvenient Truth gave rise to a new wave of climate activism in the 2000s. It was o...

30 Sep 29min

Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Trump’s Pro-Nuclear, Pro-Fossil Fuel Agenda

Since taking office last year, the Trump administration has blocked renewable energy development and attacked climate change policy, prioritized fossil fuels and encouraged nuclear energy, and started...

25 Sep 30min

What Does The Nuclear Company Do?

In the past few years, something surprising has happened in American energy policy: States and utilities have started trying to build new nuclear plants.A new kind of company — the nuclear developer —...

23 Sep 53min

Starting a Giant Online Data Platform Is the Easy Part

America has some of the world’s best data about its own internal energy, industrial economy, and carbon emissions. That’s thanks to a federal agency called the U.S. Energy Information Administration, ...

16 Sep 35min

Shift Key Classic: What Is a Watt?

As we catch up from summer vacation, we’re bringing you a favorite from the Shift Key archive. We’ll be back in your feed with more fresh episodes starting next week.What is the difference between ene...

9 Sep 47min

How to Understand America’s Gigantic Natural Gas Buildout

The United States is staring down a natural gas buildout of gigantic proportions.Amazon wants to build what would be the country’s largest power plant in Texas — and run it entirely on natural gas. No...

2 Sep 50min