Grid reliability without fossil fuel factories

Beneath the good news that New York’s grid is ready for summer, a cautionary note. (“Grid ready for power peak — for now,” May 31).

Emilie Nelson, New York Independent System Operator’s executive vice president, warns that the necessary phasing out of highly polluting “peaker” gas and oil plants will leave us vulnerable during heat waves.

But the more fossil fuels we burn to keep our air conditioners running, the hotter our summers get. How can we break that vicious cycle?

There are ways to address potential summer shortfalls that do not involve keeping the peaker plants operating. These include grid-interactive buildings, battery storage and other demand-side solutions for load shifting. As cited in the article, an increase in distributed solar from rooftops and community solar has already lowered projected summer demand on the grid.

Surprisingly, building electrification with heat pumps and electric cooking appliances can also help lower summer peak demand. Ground-source heat pumps provide more efficient cooling than traditional air conditioners. Gas cook tops, in addition to producing dangerous indoor pollution, also release copious amounts of waste heat into homes that the air conditioner has to work harder to expel. Electric induction cook tops are cool, literally and figuratively.

The droughts, fires and floods caused by climate change remind us that we must stop burning fossil fuels and adding greenhouse gases to our atmosphere. Gov. Kathy Hochul and our other political and civic leaders must not shy away from their responsibilities to make this happen, and break the vicious cycle of fossil fuel dependence. We must quickly move forward on New York’s commitments under our 2019 climate law, and we must use carbon-free energy and demand-side tools to replace fossil-fueled peaker plants.