Chicago, KC Expect Record Temperatures
Over the next week, an area that covers 240 million US residents could experience temperatures well above average. Several cities affected cities are expected to set record highs. Among them are Chicago (69 degrees F previous record), Kansas City (78 degrees), and Oklahoma City (88)
Another Record: —Dallas Is 90 Degrees
According to Fox Weather, “During the second half of the week, temperatures will transition from 20-30 degrees above average to 10-20 degrees below average.” Among the effect of this will be stress on the electricity grid, which has already been crippled by outages in the cold weather in places like Texas and rolling blackouts, particularly in California.
Balancing the grid for power surges is a tricky and challenging business. According to True Energy:
Adjusting power production: The traditional way to ensure grid balance is to increase or decrease electricity production using gas, biomass or coal. Unlike renewable energy sources, these can be adjusted and controlled manually.
Adjusting energy consumption: Regulating the consumption of large-scale electricity users.
Getting large-scale users to alter their behavior may mean asking huge companies that rely on the grid to run their businesses while throttled back. For those companies, what is the incentive?
